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erier; 


CHARLES  E,  CRAPMm 


tieprinled  f^om  The,  TlkpaM''  Amcrkaii  Ilhiorkd  RmciOj 
Vol  /;  Nos.  2  and  3,  May  and  A'Ui^nsp,  19 IS 


R«printed  from  The  Hispanic  American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  I,  Nos.  2  and  3, 
May  and  August,  1918 


A  DESCRIPTION  OF  CERTAIN  LEGAJOS  IN  THE 
ARCHIVO  GENERAL  DE  INDIAS 

Introduction.  In  1910,  the  ''Native  Sons  of  the  Golden  West", 
a  CaHfornia  fraternal  society,  founded  a  $1,500  traveling  fellow- 
ship for  research  work  in  the  field  of  California  history;  in  1911, 
an  additional  fellowship  for  the  same  amount  was  founded. 
The  writer  was  the  second  "Native  Sons'  "  Fellow  to  be  ap- 
pointed, holding  a  fellowship  for  two  years,  1912  to  1914,  during 
eighteen  months  of  which  time  he  worked  at  the  Archive  Gen- 
eral de  Indias  in  Seville.  One  of  the  principal  results  of  his  work 
was  the  compilation  of  a  vast  quantity  of  materials  which  have 
since  been  arranged  for  publication  under  the  title  Catalogue  of 
Materials  in  the  Archivo  General  de  Indias  for  the  History  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  and  the  American  Southwest,  which  is  expected  to 
appear  in  two  volumes,  in  the  latter  part  of  1918,  as  one  of  the 
University  of  California  series,  Publications  in  History.  In  this 
work  a  calendar  is  made  of  over  6,000  items  (more  than  20,000, 
if  the  separate  documents  of  bound-  files  of  papers,  or  testimonios, 
are  considered)  of  which  fully  5,000  had  never  been  utilized  by 
historians.^  As  a  ''Native  Sons'  "  Fellow,  the  writer  was  un- 
der the  necessity  of  seeking  California  materials,  and  this  was 
practically  desirable  from  the  standpoint  of  the  fellowships, 
since  they  were  not  yet  securely  established.  He  was  instructed 
to  proceed,  legajo  by  legajo,^  choosing  legajos  on  the  basis  of  their 
possibilities  as  regards  material  for  California  history,  and  to 

^  These  documents  were  also  of  the  highest  all-round  technical  character. 
On  this  point  see  the  writer's  article,  The  Archivo  General  de  Indias  in  The  South- 
western  Historical  Quarterly,  XXI.  no.  2,  pp.  145-155. 

'^  A  legajo,  or  bundle  of  papers,  of  the  archjivea  at  Seville  will  generally  con- 
tain about  2,000  pages  of  manuscript. 

1 

(  GO  I 

C  49- 


2>  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

list  California  material  only.  A  number  of  problems  arose  in 
the  interpretation  of  these  instructions,  a  few  of  which  bear  upon 
the  descriptions  which  form  the  basis  of  this  article.  It  was 
apparent  from  the  first  that  materials  for  California  history  would 
include  many  documents  relating  to  regions  in  the  direct  line  of 
approach  to  California,  especially  Baja  California  and  Sonora. 
it  soon  became  clear,  too,  that  it  was  impossible  historically  to 
separate  the  provinces  of  the  east,  including  what  are  now  New 
Mexico,  Texas,  and  the  North  Mexican  states  opposite  their 
borders,  from  those  of  the  Pacific  coast.  On  the  other  hand, 
self-evident  California  material  in  the  legajos  dealing  with  the 
frontier  provinces  of  I^ew  Spain  investigated  by  the  writer  was 
not  over  five  per  cent  of  the  whole,  and  lack  of  time  and  funds 
and  the  necessity  of  establishing  the  fellowships  precluded  list- 
ing all  of  the  materials  which  theoretically  it  would  have  been 
desirable  to  do.  During  his  whole  stay  the  writer  wavered  be- 
tween the  broad  ideal  and  the  narr6w  way  of  the  practically 
advisable,  striking,  he  beheves,  a  fair  average  between  them. 
In  the  final  result  he  made  a  wide  sweep  of  some  of  the  more  easily 
discoverable  California  materials,  but  included  about  two  thou- 
sand items  bearing  upon  the  history  of  New  Mexico  and  Texas 
representing  perhaps  the  great  majority  of  the  most  important 
documents  in  the  legajos  investigated.  The  problem  which 
has  just  been  described  is  alluded  to  in  the  case  of  specific  legajos 
in  the  article  herewith  presented.  Nevertheless,  the  descriptions 
are  based  on  the  entire  legajo — not  merely  on  the  entered  material 
— and  include  a  mention  of  many  documents  not  appearing  in 
the  calendar  of  the  writer's  Catalogue. 

While  the  materials  referred  to  relate  almost  exclusively  to 
the  border  states  of  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  particularly 
the  former,  they  have  a  significance  in  an  institutional  way  cov- 
ering all  the  Americas.  The  documents  are  of  the  same  type  as 
those  employed  for  all  of  Spain's  colonies,  as  regards  both  the 
kind  of  subject-matter  and  the  method  of  administration.  They 
are,  therefore,  of  general  utility  to  the  historian  of  colonial  in- 
stitutions, as  well  as  to  the  narrator  of  Spain's  activities  along 
what  is  now  our  southwestern  border  and  the  Pacific  coast. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS 


A.    GENERAL   CONSIDERATIONS 


1.  Character  of  the  legajos  investigated.  The  principal  idea  in  the 
choice  of  legajos  for  cataloguing  was  the  likelihood  of  their  containing 
materials  for  California  history.  A  second  aim  was  to  secure  legajos 
of  such  an  all-round  character  that  the  description  of  a  few  of  them 
might  serve  to  indicate  the  kinds  of  material  in  all.  The  descriptions 
that  follow  represent,  therefore,  not  only  an  account  of  the  207  legajos 
investigated,  but  also  a  characterization  of  a  total  of  621  legajos  in  the 
sets  described,  and  in  a  measure  furnish  a  clue  to  the  contents  of  the 
''Estado''  and  "Audienda"  groups  of  papers  as  a  whole  (18,969  legajos), 
since  the  othter  legajos  will  in  great  dogrfee  be  similar  in  names  and  ma- 
terials to  those  which  are  here  described.  This  entailed  an  investiga- 
tion of  legajos,  which,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  had  never  been  opened 
since  being  filed  a  century  before.  The  search  was  often  barren  or 
meagre,  though  not  always  so,  from  the  standpoint  of  items  for  the 
Catalogue,  but  was  well  repaid  in  the  store  of  information  it  supplied 
with  regard  to  matters,  particularly  those  of  an  institutional  character, 
of  interest  or  value  for  other  purposes  than  those  of  the  present  inves- 
tigation. 

2.  Meaning  of  "NPC".  At  the  end  of  many  of  the  legajo  descrip- 
tions, the  letters  "NPC"  are  placed  to  indicate  that  the  documents  of 
that  legajo  which  were  catalogued  had  not  previously  been  copied  up 
to  the  time  of  the  writer's  investigation.  This  was  determinable,  in 
that  a  notation,  written  with  a  pencil,  of  the  legajo  number  was  placed 
on  a  document  when  it  was  removed  from  a  legajo  for  copying.  This 
notation  served,  not  only  as  a  means  for  replacing  the  document,  but 
also  as  a  record  as  to  whether  it  had  been  copied.  The  rule  was  not 
absolute,  for  it  is  conceivable  that  the  documents  might  have  been 
removed  for  other  purposes,  though  rarely,  or  that  the  archive  clerks 
might  have  neglected  to  make  the  penciled  notation,  or  that  the 
marks  might  not  have  been  seen  by  the  writer,  since  there  was  no 
specific  place  for  them.  The  writer  beheves,  however,  that  few,  if  any, 
documents  of  those  catalogued  will  have  been  copied  in  legajos  bearing 
the  "NPC"  mark.  Furthermore,  in  most  of  the  legajos  which  lack  the 
"NPC"  characterization,  the  very  great  majority  of  the  documents 
had  never  been  copied  for  historical  purposes.  Since  that  time,  how- 
ever, many  copies  have  been  made  from  these  legajos.^    Recently  a 

3  Through  the  effort  of  "Native  Sons"  Fellows  and  Dr.  William  E.  Dunn  of 
the  University  of  Texas,  thousands  of  documents  have  been  procured  for  the 
Bancroft  Library  of  the  University  of  California,  the  Library  of  the  University 
of  Texas,  the  Newberry  Library  of  Chicago,  and  the  Library  of  Congress. 


THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 


system  has  been  instituted  at  the  Archive  General  de  Indias,  whereby  a 
definite  record  is  kept,  both  in  the  office  of  the  head  of  the  archives  and 
in  the  legajo  itself,  of  copies  that  are  made,  with  a  statement  of  the 
date  of  copying,  name  and  nationahty  of  the  investigator,  subject  of 
the  investigation,  number  and  title  of  the  legajo,  number  of  copies 
made,  object  of  the  work  and  use  to  be  made  of  the  copies,  and  a 
summary  of  their  contents.* 


1-12. 

Estado,  Am.  Gen,  1-12. 

103-115.  Aud.  Guad 

103-4-12  to  24. 

13. 

« 

,  Aud.  Guad,  1. 

116-128.       " 

,  103-5-1  to  13. 

14-36. 

« 

,  Aud.  Mex,  1-23. 

129.       " 

103-5-20. 

37. 

Aud. 

Mex 

6(M-37. 

130.       " 

103-5-25. 

38-42. 

Aud. 

Guad,    67-3-27  to  31. 

131.       " 

103-&-19. 

43. 

« 

« 

,    67-4-45. 

132.       "        « 

103-6-21. 

44. 

« 

ft 

,    67-5-3. 

133-141.       " 

103-6-23  to  31. 

45^6. 

Aud. 

Mex 

88-5-13  to  14. 

142-153.       " 

103-7-1  to  12. 

47-48. 

« 

« 

88-5-16  to  17. 

154-162.       " 

104-1-6  to  14. 

49-52. 

It 

« 

88-5-22  to  25. 

163.       " 

104-2-13. 

53-55. 

It 

« 

88-6-18  to  20. 

164.       " 

,  104-2-25. 

56-57. 

tt 

« 

89-3-22  to  23. 

165-169.       " 

,  104-3-1  to  5. 

58-81. 

ft 

ft 

89-6-1  to  24. 

170-171.       " 

,  104-3-9  to  10. 

82. 

t( 

if 

91-5-25. 

172.       " 

,  104-3-18. 

83. 

It 

ft 

91-e-17. 

173.       " 

104-3-21. 

84. 

ft 

ft 

95-6-7. 

174-176.       " 

104-3-24  to  25. 

85. 

ft 

ft 

95-7-16. 

177.       " 

104-4-28. 

86-88. 

ft 

ft 

96-1-11  to    13. 

178-184.       " 

,  104-5-10  to  16. 

89-90. 

It 

ft 

97-4-5  to  6. 

185.       " 

104-5-19. 

91. 

Aud. 

Gua( 

i,  103-3-6. 

186.       "         "     , 

104-5-24. 

92. 

« 

« 

,  103-3-10. 

187-189. 

104-6-7  to  9. 

93-94. 

« 

« 

,  103-3-12  to  13. 

190-202.       "        " 

104-6-12  to  24 

95. 

« 

« 

,  103-3-21. 

203.       "        " 

104-7-6. 

96-98. 

« 

« 

,  103-3-24  to  26. 

204.       " 

104-7-8. 

99. 

ft 

« 

,  103-3-28. 

205.       " 

104-7-33. 

100. 

ft 

« 

,  103-^-4. 

206-207.       " 

105-1-24  to  25. 

101-102. 

ft 

« 

,  103^-9  to  10. 

3.  Numerical  order  of  the  legajos  on  which  the  Catalogue  is  based. 

The  numbers  above  represent  merely  the  total  of  legajos  up  to  that 
point  in  the  writer's  Catalogue.  "Am.  Gen."  is  equivalent  to  "America 
en  General",  "Aud.  Guad."  to  " Audiencia  de  Guadalajara" ,  and"  Aud. 
Mex."  to  "Audiencia  de  Mexico."  In  ordering  from  or  citing  "Estado" 
legajos,  full  entry  must  be  made,  as  in  items  1  to  36  above.     In  the 

*  The  system  is  described  in  Roscoe  R.  Hill,  Descriptive  catalogue  of  the  docu- 
ments relating  to  the  history  of  the  United  States  in  the  Papeles  Procedentes  de 
Cuba  deposited, in  the  Archive  General  de  Indias  at  Seville  (Washington,  1916), 
pp.  X.,  XI. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS 


case  of  all  the  other  legajos,  order  or  citation  by  number  alone  is 
sufficient.  The  reference  to  the  Audiencia  is  therefore  omitted  in  the 
following  section,  devoted  to  the  descriptions. 


B.  LEGAJO  DESCRIPTIONS 

1.  The  "Papeles  de  Estado"  group.  This  entire  set  is  composed  of 
105  legajos,  dating  from  1750  to  1836.  In  1871,  they  were  turned 
over  by  the  ministry  of  state  (Estado)  to  the  Archive  General  de  In- 
dias.^  The  documents  are  of  the  same  sort  as  those  in  the  "Audiencia" 
group  of  the  "Simancas  papers";  they  are  divided  into  the  same  thir- 
teen subdivisions  by  colonial  Audiencias,  plus  one  other  called  "America 
en  General";  they  merely  represent  certain  of  the  papers  about  colonial 
affairs,  by  no  means  all,  for  the  years  in  question,  which  were  taken 
up  with  the  state  department  by  that  of  the  Indies.  A  useful  manu- 
script catalogue  by  expedientes  already  exists  at  the  Archivo  General 
de  Indias;  a  description  of  the  principal  document  of  an  expediente  is 
made,  with  a  mention  of  the  subordinate  documents  filed  with  it.  The 
expedientes,  or  "  documentos" ,  are  numbered  consecutively.  Thirty-six 
legajos  in  this  set  were  examined.  Entry  of  items  was  based  on  ex- 
pedientes touching  upon  affairs  in  the  Pacific  with  a  direct  or  indirect 
bearing  upon  the  Californias.  In  all,  there  were  over  2,500  expedientes 
in  the  thirty-six  legajos,  of  which  193,  yielding  618  items,  were  entered. 
Very  few  of  the  entered  documents  bore  marks  showing  that  they 
had  ever  been  removed  for  copying,  although  in  three  legajos,  particu- 
larly rich  in  diaries  of  Spanish  voyages  to  the  northwest  coast  and  of 
Spanish  expeditions  in  Alta  CaHfornia,  and  in  correspondence  of  the 
Spanish  ministers  to  Russia  about  Russian  activities  in  the  far  north- 
west (Aud.  Guad.  1,  and  Aud.  Mex.  1  and  19),  the  entered  material 
had  been  quite  generally  copied.® 

In  addition  to  the  material  just  mentioned,  these  legajos  are  espe- 
cially noteworthy  for  their  Spanish  accounts  of  voyages  along  the 
Pacific  coasts  of  New  Spain  and  the  CaHfornias  by  English,  American, 
Spanish-American  revolutionary,  and  so-called  pirate  ships,  during  the 
last  three  decades  of  Spanish  rule.  There  is  also  much  valuable  ma- 
terial about  Gdlvez's  reforms  and  the  complaints  against  him.     The 

5  Hill,  Descriptive  catalogue,  p.  IX. 

®  By  Professor  H.  Morse  Stephens  for  the  Bancroft  Library. 


6  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

affairs  of  San  Bias,  including  frequent  reference  to  the  project  of  re- 
moving the  Department  from  that  port  to  Acapulco,  the  Manila  galleon 
trade,  and  Spanish  exploration  of  the  Hawaiian  (Sandwich)  Islands 
are  prominent  in  the  entered  material. 

.  The  most  important  items  of  those  omitted  in  cataloguing  dealt 
with  the  Spanish-American  War  of  Independence,  which  is  very  fully 
treated  here.^  For  the  earher  years,  there  is  much  about  precautions 
against  foreign  ships  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  foreign  residents  in  New 
Spain,  American  and  English  aggressions,  and  the  efforts  to  check 
seditious  doctrines.  Less  important,  perhaps,  are  papers  about  re- 
missions of  treasure  or  of  the  Gaceta  of  Mexico  to  Spain ,  the  receipt  of 
the  mails  in  New  Spain,  and  the  petitions  of  individuals. 

2.  Legajo  60-4-37.  Viage  y  derrotero  de  las  naos  que  fueron  al 
Descubrimiento  del  Puerto  de  Acapulco  a  cargo  del  general  Sebastian 
Vizcayno.  Anos  1602.  This  small  legajo  contained  only  the  important 
item  entered  in  the  Catalogue  as  number  6.  It  refers  to  Vizcaino's  ex- 
pedition, not  to  Acapulco,  but  from  there  to  Monterey  and  the  Alta 
California  coast.  The  material  had  previously  been  copied  for  the 
Bancroft  Library. 

3.  Legajos  67-3-27  to  31.  Espediente  sobre  el  descubrimiento,  con- 
quista  y  misiones  de  la  provincia  de  la  California.  Anos  1602  a  1758. 
These  are  exceedingly  important  legajos  for  the  field  embraced  by  the 
Catalogue,  and,  with  one  or  two  minor  exceptions,  every  document  was 
entered.  In  all,  there  were  262  items  catalogued,  including  many 
valuable  and  bulky  testimonios.  All  of  the  documents  bear  removal 
marks,  but  it  seems  probable  that  the  larger  testimonios  were  not  in 
fact  copied;  certainly  very  many  of  them  have  never  been  exploited. 
Legajos  67-3-27  and  67-3-28  bear  upon  Spain's  activities  with  regard 
to  the  Cahfornias,  principally  Baja  Cahfornia,  and,  except  for  the 
omission  of  the  Vizcafno  voyage  to  Alta  California  (for  which  legajo 
60-4-37  is  available),  they  form  an  adequate  set  of  materials  for  an 
entire  rewriting  of  Spanish  efforts  to  procure  a  foothold  in  the  Cah- 
fornias in  the  seventeenth  century — for  such  attempts  were  made  after 
Vizcaino's  time,  despite  the  oft-written  statements  that  they  were 
not.  In  legajo  67-3-28,  there  is  much  about  the  early  history  of  Baja 
Cahfornia,   following  its  settlement  in   1697.    Legajos  67-3-29  and 

^  The  omission  in  this  case  is  of  slight  consequence,  since  the  "Estado" 
papers  were  drawn  upon  liberally  by  Senor  Torres  Lanzas  in  his  Independencia 
de  Amirica;  fuentes  para  su  estudio;  catdlogo  de  documentos  conservados  en  el 
Archivo  General  de  Indias  de  Seville,  1.  serie,  6  v.     Madrid.     1912. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  7 

67-3-31,  covering  the  years  1731  to  1758,  are  rich  in  materials  for  Baja 
CaHfornia,  but  even  more  so  for  Sonora  and  Pimeria  Alta,  as  the  region 
embracing  the  northern  part  of  modern  Sonora  and  southern  Arizona 
was  formerly  called;  and  in  legajo  67-3-31  there  are  a  few  Nueva 
Vizcaya  documents.  Nevertheless,  there  is  an  essential  unity  in  the 
materials,  for  they  bear  very  largely  on  questions  of  northward  ad- 
vance. Legajo  67-3-30,  for  the  year  1751,  relates  wholly  to  Nueva 
Vizcaya,  containing  only  ten  items,  due  to  the  presence  of  several  huge 
testimonios.  The  names  of  Vizcaino,  the  Cardona^^  Iturbe,  Ortega, 
Carbonel,  Porter,  Pynadero,  Otondo,  Salvatier'ra,  Kino,  Rodero,  the 
Marques  de  Aysa,  Escobar,  Consag,  and  Sanchez  are  a  few  which  sug- 
gest the  nature  of  the  document^,  but  there  is  much  el^e  at  present 
buried  in  the  testimonios  about  Indian  wars  and  related  matters  (such 
as  the  founding  of  presidios  and  missions)  in  Baja  California,  Sonora, 
and  Nueva  Vizcaya,  secularization  of  the  Jefeuit  missions  of  Tepehuana 
and  Topia,  projects  for  colonization  of  the  Calif ornias,  and  the  general 
progress  of  the  Spanish  advance.^ 

4.  Legajo  67-4-45.  Espediente  sobre  las  volas  y  planchas  halladas 
en  la  primeria  alta  en  la  provincia  de  Sonora.  Anos  1737  a  1740. 
This  relates  to  the  spectacular  discovery,  in  1736,  of  the  balls  of  silver 
at  Arizona  (otherwise  Arissona  or  Arizonac) ,  and  to  the  action  t^ken  at 
Mexico  aSnd  Madrid  in  consequence.  The  documents  range  from  1736 
to  1739,  instead  of  the  dates  given  above,  and  show  that  the  event  led, 
not  only  to  a  rush  of  settlers  to  Sonora,  but  also  to  suggestions  for  an 
advance  of  the  northern  frontier.  The  wholie  legajo  was  entered, 
yielding  twenty-four  items,  several  of  them  bulky  testimonios. — NPC 

5.  Legajo  67-5-3.  Espediente  sobre  el  estado  del  Gobierno  de  la 
Nueva  Vizcaya;  y  excesos  que  cometen  los  Yndios  barbaros  y  Apostatos 
sn  sus  fronteras..  Anos  1765  a  1756.  The  title  accurately  describes 
the  contents.  Some  copies  had  been  made — which  may  account  for 
the  disorder  of  the  legajo.  Because  of  the  presence  of  several  testi- 
monios, the  legajo  contained  only  sixteen  items,  all  of  which  were 
entered. 

6.  Legajo  88-5-13.  Virreynato.  Instrucciones  que  dejaban  los  Vi- 
rreyes  a  los  sucesores.  Anos  1772  a  1801.  Along  with  a  few  remitting 
letters,  this  contained  the  following  instructions  of  viceroys  to  their 
successors:  the  Marques  (Francisco)  de  Croix  to  Bucarely;  the  Caba- 

8  A  considerable  part  of  the  material  in  these  legajos  has  been  copied  for  the 
Bancroft  Library. 


O  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

Hero  (Teodoro)  de  Croix,  as  viceroy  of  Peru,  to  Gil;  two  of  Re  villa 
Gigedo  (the  younger)  to  Branciforte;  two  of  Azanza  to  MarqUina. 
All  were  entered. — NPC 

7.  Legajo  88-5-14.  Virreynato.  Ynstrucdones  dadas  al  Virrey 
Bucareli,  Cedulas,  Minutas  de  despachos  y  provisiones  del  Virreynato. 
Anos  1760  a  1819.  This  is  an  excelletit  legajo  for  the  study  of  the 
ceremonial  surrounding  the  viceroy's  position,  particularly  as  to  honors, 
titles,  and  privileges  granted  him  upon  entering  office.  Nothing  was 
entered.— NPC 

8.  Legajos  88-5-17  and  18.  Virreynato.  Corresponda.  confidencial 
con  los  Virrey es.  Anos  1766  d  1779.  These  were  made  up  of  the  per- 
sonal correspondence  of  Viceroy  Bucarely  between  1766  and  1777,  for 
no  letters  appear  for  1778  dud  1779.  The  first  legajo  was  composed 
principally  of  letters  between  Bucarely  and  General  Alejandro  O'Reilly 
while  there  is  also  a  file,  for  the  year  1771,  of  semi-official  correspond- 
ence of  Bucarely  with  Jos6  de  Gdlvez,  the  Marques  de  Croix,  and  Arch- 
bishop Lorenzana,  prior  to  Bucarely's  arrival  in  Mexico  as  the  suc- 
cessor of  Croix.  Bucarely's  letters  are  dVafts,  for  the  file  seems  to  have 
belonged  personally  to  him,  while  the  other  letters  are  originals.  The 
correspondehce  with  O'Reilly  is  especially  interesting,  because  of  its 
intimate  nature.  While  the  body  of  the  letters  is  usually  in  the  hand- 
writing of  a  clerk,  both  Bucarely  and  O'Reilly  frequently  added  matter 
in  their  own  hands,  especially  long  postscripts,  and  in  several  cases 
dispensed  with  the  use  of  a  clerk  altogether.  The  letters  are  of  great 
importance,  as  will  appear  from  the  following  explanation.  Bucarely 
wished  very  much  to  retire — would  in  fact  have  preferred  to  return 
to  Spain  from  Havana  r&,ther  than  become  viceroy  of  New  Spain — 
and  O'Reilly  desired  equally  to  succeed  him  as  viceroy.  Thus,  O'Reilly 
was  eager  to  learn,  and  Bucarely  glad  to  relate,  the  principal  events  and 
problems  of  the  viceroyalty.  From  1769  (while  Bucarely  was  still  in 
Havana)  to  1775,  the  file  shows  a  letter  a  month  from  each;  there  are 
also  single  letters  of  O'Reilly  for  1766,  1776,  and  1777,  and  of  Bucarely 
for  1776  and  1777.  Unlike  official  letters,  which  were  limited  to  treat- 
ment of  a  single  subject,  this  correspondence  ranges  at  the  will  of  the 
writers,  but  for  that  very  reason  it  gives  an  element  of  proportion  less 
easy  to  determine  in  official  documents.  The  affairs  of  the  northern 
frontier  are  thus  revealed  as  a  very  important  item  in  the  viceroy's 
attention.  One  interesting  sidelight  was  the  prominent  place  accorded 
Hugo  Oconor  in  this  correspondence.  Oconor  seems  to  have  been  a 
proteg^  of  O'Reilly,  who  never  failed  to  inquire  about  his  friend,  and 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  9 

Bucarely  was  equally  consistent  in  giving  the  news;  indeed,  the  stu- 
dent of  Oconor's  important  work  on  the  northern  frontier  must  not 
neglect  this  file. 

Forty-six  of  Bucarely's  letters  to  O'Reilly  were  entered,  and  the 
other  documents  of  the  legajo  omitted.  The  making  of  the  entry  was 
difficult,  not  only  because  of  the  variety  of  the  subject-matter,  but  also 
because  of  the  utterly  wretched  handwriting  of  Bucarely.  An  attempt 
was  made  to  state  the  principal  fact  discussed  in  the  letter,  with  added 
comment  about  matters  bearing  upon  the  affairs  of  Alta  CaHfornia. 

The  documents  of  legajo  88-5-18  consist  of  Bucarely's  private  corre- 
spondence with  the  Marques  de  Losadas,  during  the  period  while 
Bucarely  was  captain-general  in  Cuba.  None  of  these  documents  were 
entered.— NPC 

9.  Legajos  88-5-22  and  23.  Virreynato.  Expedte.  de  visitas  de  las 
Cajas  Reales  de  Acapulco  hecha  por  D.  Jose  de  Galvez.  Anos  1771  d 
1772.  The  two  legajos  deal  with  the  frauds  discovered  (or,  at  least, 
alleged)  in  connection  with  the  visitation  of  the  cajas  reales  of  Acapulco, 
Gdlvez's  dismissal  of  the  Acapulco  oficiales  reales,  and  their  petitions 
for  reinstatement  (which  seem  ultimately  to  have  been  successful). 
Legajo  88-5-22  contained  twenty-six  items,  most  of  them  testimonios  of 
1771,  made  up  of  documents  of  earlier  date.  The  seventy-eight  docu- 
ments of  legajo  88-5-23  ranged  between  the  years  1763  and  1773. 
All  were  entered.'— NPC 

10.  Legajos  88-5-24  and  25.  Virreynato.  Expedte.  de  la  visita  de 
D.  Jose  Galvez  sohre  todas  las  Rentas  de  Real  Hacda.  Anos  1767  d  1776. 
The  forty-three  items  of  legajo  88-5-24  and  the  eighty-four  of  legajo 
88-5-25,  all  of  them  entered,  include  many  documents  of  the  greatest 
value  for  an  understanding  of  the  Gdlvez  visita  of  1765-1771.  Most 
of  them  fall  within  the  years  of  the  visita,  although  some  go  as  far 
back  as  the  year  1752.  They  deal  with  the  whole  subject  of  Gd,lvez's 
reforms  in  commerce  and  real  hacienda.  Documents  about  Vera  Cruz 
and  Mexico  City  are  in  the  majority,  but  only  because,  as  the 
principal  port  and  leading  city,  those  places  were  essential  factors  in 
any  general  project  Legajo  88-5-25  is  most  largely  composed  of  the 
opinions  of  others  about  the  reforms  of  the  visitador,  including  the  de- 
tailed objections  of  the  Consulado  of  Mexico  and  of  Tomds  Ortiz  de 
Landazuri,  chief  of  the  Contaduria  General,  but  also  including  the  im- 

'  Many  were  copied  by  the  writer  for  Dr.  H.  I.  Priestley,  who  used  them  in  his 
Jos4  de  Gdlvez  (Berkeley,  1916). 


10  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

portant  opinion  of  the  fiscales  of  Castile,  Campomanes  and  Moiiino 
(better  known  as  the  Conde  de  Floridablanca),  whose  voluminous  re- 
port (see  item  number  1722)  sustained  Galvez.^" — NPC 

11.  Legajos  88-6-18  to  20.  Virreynato.  Cartas  y  expedientes  del 
Virrey.  The  entire  set  with  this  title  is  composed  of  seventy-one 
legajos,  dating  from  1537  to  1821.  The  three  that  were  investigated 
contain  well-ordered  expedientes  dealing  with  administrative  details, 
principally  about  real  hacienda.  They  are  respectively  for  the  years 
1772,  1773,  and  1774;  the  first  has  fifteen  expedientes  (two  to  sixteen, 
inclusive,  number  one  having  been  withdrawn  in  1804),  the  second, 
fourteen  (one  to  thirteen  and  one  unnumbered),  and  the  third,  thirteen 
(one  to  twelve  and  one  unnumbered).  The  following  are  some  of  the 
topics:  petitions  for  increase  of  salary;  papers  relating  to  the  repair 
of  public  buildings  in  Mexico;  an  expediente  about  a  governor  of 
Tlaxcala  who  had  just  quitted  his  post;  the  authorization  for  one 
Joseph  Marion  to  carry  4,000  pesos'  worth  of  goods  from  Acapulco  to 
Manila;  the  departure  of  fleets  from  Vera  Cruz  bound  for  Spain; 
minor  ecclesiastical  and  administrative  appointments;  the  resigna- 
tion of  an  alcalde  mayor;  an  expediente  about  the  commerce  of  Vera 
Cruz  with  other  Atlantic  coast  ports;  an  expediente  about  raising  a 
military  company  to  guard  certain  eastern  towns;  and  an  expediente 
arising  from  the  pubUcation,  without  license,  of  a  certain  book.  Noth- 
ing was  entered. — NPC 

12.  Legajos  89-3-22  and  23,  and  89-6-1  to  24.  Virreynato.  Du- 
plicados  del  Virrey.  The  entire  set  of  the  Duplicados  of  the  viceroys 
consists  of  180  legajos,  dating  from  1664,  but  all  except  twenty-three 
are  for  the  years  1751  to  1823.  Only  the  above-cited  twenty-six  were 
investigated.  Legajo  89-3-22,  for  the  years  1769  and  1770,  during  the 
administration  of  the  Marques  de  Croix,  aroused  great  expectations  as 
to  the  wealth  of  the  entire  set  in  materials  coming  within  the  scope  of  the 
Catalogue.  Most  of  the  expedientes  in  this  legajo  have  a  numbered  dupli- 
cate of  Croix's,  signed  with  his  name  and  rubric,  as  the  principal  docu- 
ment, the  others  being  enclosures  and  the  whole  file  being  directed  to  the 
ministro  general  de  Indias,  JuHdn  de  Arriaga.  Many  lack  the  serial 
number  and  the  legally  required  index,  or  description,  as  well,  for  Croix 
seems  to  have  been  unsystematic  in  this  respect.  The  bulk  of  the 
legajo,  however,  is  due  to  a  few  unnumbered  originals  of  Croix,  with 

*"  Many  of  these  documents  were  copied  for  Dr.  H.  I.  Priestley,  for  whose 
volume  they  served  as  among  the  most  valuable  of  his  materials. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  11 

their  enclosures  of  testimonios.  While  the  materials  were,  in  the  main, 
like  those  of  legajos  89-6-1  to  24  (presently  to  be  described)  in  sub- 
ject-matter, there  were  sixteen  valuable  expedientes,  with  a  total  of 
seventy-nine  documents,  most  of  which  treat,  in  detailed  fashion  (with 
diaries,  letters,  and  estados),  of  the  sea  and  land  expeditions  of  1769  to 
Alta  California.  Legajo  89-3-23,  for  the  year  1772,  contained  thirty- 
two  of  Bucarely's  duplicates,  with  enclosures,  but  only  two,  of  slight 
importance,  were  entered. 

The  writer  was  prompted  to  investigate  legajos  89-6-1  to  24  by  a 
hope  that  he  would  find  additional  materials  about  foreign  voyages  to 
the  northwest  coast  in  the  years  covered  by  the  correspondence,  1785 
to  1795,  and,  in  particular,  some  further  light  on  the  Nootka  affair. 
In  this  respect,  the  legajos  were  disappointing.  The  numbered  corre- 
spondence of  the  viceroys  Bernardo  de  Galvez,  Archbishop  Alonzo 
Ntinez  de  Haro,  Florez,  Revilla  Gigedo,  and  Branciforte,  and  of  the 
Audiencia  of  Mexico  acting  as  viceroy,  is  very  nearly  complete;  even 
when  missing,  its  character  can  usually  be  determined  by  the  lists  of 
indices  of  the  viceroys'  letters,  describing  all  that  they  wrote,  except 
those  marked  reservada;  even  the  reservadas  are  usually  here.  Never- 
theless, surprisingly  little  within  the  range  of  this  Catalogue,  or  even 
of  any  wide  narrative  interest,  was  found,  whether  in  the  letters  in 
ordinary  course  or  in  the  reservadas.  There  is  almost  an  entire  absence 
of  materials  touching  upon  the  American  southwest.  The  Pacific 
coast  fares  better,  owing  to  the  recurrence  of  letters  about  the  pious 
fund  of  the  Californias  and  the  Department  of  San  Bias.  There  are 
also  several  expedientes  about  local  affairs  in  Alta  California,  including 
the  Fages  proposal  for  reopening  the  route  from  Sonora. 

For  routine  matters,  of  a  general  administrative  character,  the 
legajos  may  well  have  considerable  value.  As  already  mentioned  in  the 
case  of  legajo  89-3-22,  they  are  made  up  of  the  duplicates  of  the  viceroys, 
with  their  enclosures,  the  whole  file  in  each  case  duplicating  that  of  the 
original.  The  action  taken  in  Spain  on  the  expedientes  is  lacking,  but 
it  can  often  be  determined  by  the  later  answers  of  the  viceroys.  In 
some  cases  the  originals  are  in  these  legajos,  though  without  the  addi- 
tional documents  arising  from  official  attention  in  Spain,"  and  in 
three  cases  both  the  original  and  duplicate  of  a  viceroy  are  present. 
Some  other  materials,  possibly  due  to  an  error  in  filing,  are  occa- 
sionally found,  especially  in  legajo  89-6-18,  where  there  are  a  num- 

"  Cf .  infra,  note  11. 


12  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAJi  REVIEW 

ber  of  testimonios  (not  catalogued)  about  the  financial  affairs  of  Guana- 
juato, covering  the  years  1768  to  1792,  Disregarding  these  materials 
and  the  three  above-mentioned  duplications,  there  are  1841  expedientes, 
each  a  viceroy's  letter  and  its  enclosures,  in  the  twenty-four  legajos, 
of  which  only  forty-six  were  entered,  yielding  ninety-eight  items. 
A  large  proportion  of  the  expedientes  not  catalogued  deal  with  appoint- 
ments to  office,  chiefly  military  appointments,  while  there  is  also  con- 
siderable material  about  affairs  of  the  city  of  Mexico  and  about  the 
church.— NPC 

13.  Legajo  91-5-25.  Virreynato.  Espedientes  diarios.  Anos  1770. 
This  is  the  first  legajo  in  a  series  of  twenty,  covering  the  years  1770  to 
1799.  It  is  made  up  of  such  matters  as  petitions  of  individuals  to  come 
to  the  Americas,  of  high  officials  of  Mexico  asking  permission  to  marry, 
and  of  matters  pertaining  to  lawsuits  and  routine  administration. 
Areche's  request  for  permission  to  marry  was  the  only  document 
entered.— NPC 

14.  Legajo  91-6-17.  Virreynato.  Espedientes  Consvltados  par  el 
Consejo.  Anos  1772  a  1800.  This  is  wholly  concerned  with  matters 
of  real  hacienda  for  the  years  1782  to  1796,  most  of  the  expedientes  (not 
numbered  and  in  some  disorder)  relating  to  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz. 
Nothing  was  entered. — NPC 

15.  Legajo  95-6-7.  Virreynato.  Embarco  de  tropas  a  distintos 
puntos.  Anos  1765  a  1778.  While  of  great  general  value,  this  legajo 
contained  nothing  for  the  present  Catalogue.  It  concerned  the  em- 
barking of  troops  from  Spain,  not  only  to  New  Spain,  but  also  to 
Havana,  Nicaragua,  Lima,  and  Buenos  Aires.  One  expediente  is  for 
the  year  1761.— NPC 

16.  Legajo  95-7-16.  Virreynato.  Fortificaciones,  Pertrechos  de 
Guerra,  Siiuados  de  Tropa  y  sus  Incidencias.  Anos  1769  d  1770.  This 
is  one  of  a  set  containing  thirty  legajos  between  the  years  1721  and 
1818.  Except  for  an  expediente  of  six  documents  about  Gdlvez's  work 
and  loss  of  health  while  in  Sonora  in  1769,  nothing  in  this  legajo  was 
entered.  The  legajo  is  concerned  with  routine  military  matters  for 
central  and  southern  New  Spain,  more  particularly  for  the  cities  of 
Vera  Cruz  and  Mexico.  Petitions  for  promotion  or  retirement,  pro- 
motions granted,  and  monthly  reviews  of  regiments  and  posts  make  up 
almost  the  entire  legajo.  Among  the  unentered  items  are  the  following : 
papers  about  the  review  of  Domingo  Elizondo's  regiment  of  dragones 
de  Espana;  an  expediente  giving  the  names  and  salaries  of  military 
engineers  of  New  Spain,  including  a  reference  to  the  promotion  of 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LECAJOS  13 

Miguel  Costans6,  for  his  services  in  the  Alta  California  expedition  of 
1769;  a  petition  of  Diego  Parrilla  containing  documents  concerning  his 
services  and  campaigns  in  Texas. — NPC 

17.  Legajo  96-1-11.  Virreynato.  Papeles  y  Pianos  relativos  a  la 
guerra  de  la  Sonora.  Anos  1767  a  1771.  This  is  a  small  legajo  of  less 
than  three  hundred  pages,  containing  thirty  items,  all  of  which  were 
entered.  The  greater  part  of  the  documents^  is  divided  between 
Armona's  accounts  of  the  campaign  around  the  Cerro  Prieto  and  the 
viceroy's  letters  to  Spain  giving  the  latest  news  about  the  war  in 
Sonora.— NPC 

18.  Legajos  96-1-12  and  13.  Virreynato.  Cuentas  de  la  Expedicion 
d  Sonora.  Anos  1766  d  1775.  The  two  legajos  aggregate  3,450  pages 
of  material,  nearly  all  of  which  relates  to  the  jfinancial  accounts  of  the 
Sonona  expeditions  of  1766  to  1771.  Some  accounts  for  the  Alta 
Califortiia  and  Nueva  Vizcaya  expeditions  and  for  the  expenses  of  the 
Department  of  Skn  Bias,  in  the  same  documents  with  the  Sonora  ac- 
counts, also  appear,  for  activities  in  these  regions  were  regarded  as 
falling  within  the  same  general  plan.  The  value  of  the  whole  is  very 
great.  Many  of  the  testimonios  of  the  two  legajos  duplicate  each 
other.  The  majority  are  dated  1776  and  1777,  when  the  accounts 
were  completed.  All  of  the  documents  were  entered,  yielding  ninety 
items.— NPC 

19.  Legajos  97-4-5  and  6.  Edesiastico.  Espedte.  sobre  liquidacion 
de  cuentas  y  venta  de  fincas  del  fondo  piadoso  de  Misiones  de  California. 
Anos  1805.  The  two  legajos  may  be  taken  as  comprising  one  expediente, 
with  a  total  of  136  items,  all  of  which  were  catalogued.  The  documents 
are  not  for  the  date  given  above,  but  range  between  1766  and  1797. 
The  specific  question  giving  rise  to  the  expediente  first  appeiars  in  1771, 
although  there  are  some  inventories  of  Jesuit  goods  of  prior  date. 
The  issue  raised  was  whether  a  sum  of  136,184  pesos,  expended  on  the 
expeditions  of  1769  to  Alta  California,  should  be  charged  to  the  pious 
fund  of  the  Californias  or  to  real  hacienda.  Out  of  this  came  a  dis- 
cussion whether  the  pious  fund  should  continue  to  be  administered 
separately  by  the  Juzgado  de  Temporalidades  or  whether  it  should 
become  a  branch  of  real  hacienda  and  have  its  estates  sold.  The 
latter  course  was  decided  upon  in  1781,  but  the  law  seems  not  to 
have  been  executed  for  several  years.  The  above  is  the  principal 
content  of  legajo  97-4-5.  The  documents  of  legajo  97-4-6  relate  to  the 
sale  of  the  above-mentioned  estates  and  the  status  of  the  pious  fund 
after  it  became  a  branch  of  real  hacienda,  but  most  of  the  items  cover 


14  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

matters  of  routine  administration  of  the  fund.  In  both  legajos  there 
is  much  material  of  value  incidental  to  the  main  theme,  of  which  a 
number  of  estados  showing  receipts  and  disbursements  of  the  pious 
fund  for  1767  to  1792  are  perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  items. — NPC 

20.  Legajo  103-3-6.  Registros  de  oficio.  Reales  ordenes  dirigidas  a 
las  autoridades  del  distrito.  Afios  1745  d  1766.  This  is  the  last  of  a 
set  of  six  legajos  for  the  years  1554  to  1766.  The  legajo  investigated 
was  composed  of  two  bound  volumes,  for  respectively  1745  to  1758 
and  1758  to  1766.  Each  contains  copies  of  royal  orders  to  the  vice- 
roys, the  Audiencia  of  Guadalajara,  officials  of  the  cathedral  at  Gua- 
dalajara, and  to  others,  with  reference  to  affairs  within  the  region 
embraced  by  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Audiencia  of  Guadalajara.  The 
subject-matter  varies,  from  the  most  general  in  character,  to  orders 
respecting  particular  individuals.  Thirty  such  royal  orders  (entered 
separately)  were  catalogued.  They  dealt  with  Indian  wars  in  Pi- 
merla  Alta,  the  Spanish  projects  of  conquest  toward  the  Gila  and 
Colorado  rivers,  and  Spanish  fears  of  French  intrusions  in  Texas  in 
the  years  preceding  the  cession  of  Louisiana  to  Spain. — NPC 

21.  Legajo  103-3-10.  Yndice  de  Cedulas  y  Reales  Ordenes.  Anos 
1760  a  1805.  The  real  dates  of  the  tndice  are  1670  (not  1760)  to  1774, 
although  there  are  a  few  separate  documents  running  to  the  year 
1805,  one  of  which,  an  item  about  Texas,  was  the  only  ent(>red  docu- 
ment of  the  legajo.  The  principal  part  of  the  legajo  is  the  Indice, 
which  may  be  best  described  by  copying  its  title:  Indice  de  his  Cedulas 
mas  particulares  expedidas  de  oficio,  y  a  instancia  de  Partes — al  Distrito 
de  la  Audiencia  de  Guadalaxara  desde  el  ano  de  1670  hasta  el  tiempo 
presente;  sacado  de  los  Libros  de  Registro  .  .  .  .  y  puesto  en  orden 
alfahetico,  arreglado  a  las  materias  de  que  tratan  .  .  .  Por  Martin 
Osorio  ....  Anode  1774-  The  alphabetical  arrangement  of  sub- 
ject-matter contains  descriptions,  similar  to  those  in  the  items  of  the 
present  Catalogue,  giving  the  gist  of  each  real  cedula.  There  were  six 
such  items  between  1688  and  1721  under  the  heading  "  Calif ornias". 
There  is  no  indication  of  the  legajo  in  which  the  cedulas  themselves 
are  to  be  found. — NPC 

22.  Legajos  103-3-12  and  13.  Consultas,  Decretos  y  ordenes  origi- 
nates. These  were  two  of  a  set  of  nine  legajos  for  the  years  1760  to  1821. 
Legajo  103-3-12  was  for  1765  to  1771,  and  legajo  103-3-13  for  1772  to 
1781.  The  greater  part  of  these  legajos  consists  of  the  recommendation 
of  the  Councils  of  the  Indies  to  the  king,  accompanied  by  the  opinion 
of  the  fiscal,  without  other  documents,  thus  enabling  one  to  get  at 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  15 

once  to  the  meat  of  a  matter.  Both  are  originals.  The  legajos  are  in 
admirably  good  order,  the  expedientes  being  grouped  by  years  and 
numbered  consecutively  within  each  year  group.  In  addition  to  the 
principal  class  of  expedientes  there  are  some  called  (in  legajo  103-3-12) 
ConsuUas  sobre  materias  seculares,  made  up  primarily  of  the  corre- 
spondence within  the  Council  itself,  but  occasionally  including  also  the 
documents  upon  which  action  was  based.  _ 

Legajo  103-3-12  yielded  nineteen  items  of  minor  importance.  Among 
unentered  expedientes  was  one  of  1768  arising  from  Gd,lvez's  order  to 
the  Audiencia  of  Guadalajara  prohibiting  it  from  hearing  cases  of  fraud 
in  connection  with  the  levy  of  the  alcdbala,  and  two  respectively  of  1769 
and  1770,  about  a  Frenchman  of  Guadalajara  named  Pedro  Molina 
and  a  Portuguese  of  Cucula  named  Joseph  Mederos,  arising  from  pe- 
titions of  these  foreigners  that  they  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  Spanish 
colonies.  Legajo  103-3-13,  yielding  sixteen  items,  proved  of  great  value, 
owing  to  the  bulk  and  importance  of  two  of  the  entries,  respectively 
2,906  and  3,293  ill  the  Catalogue.  Other  noteworthy  Alta  California 
materials  deal  with  the  pious  fund  and  with  the  proposed  custodia  of 
San  Gabriel.— NPC 

23.  Legajo  103-3-21.  Remisiones  al  Consjeo,  Camara,  y  Minis- 
tros.  Anos  1737  a  1800.  The  idea  in  the  formation  of  this  legajo 
seems  to  have  been  to  bring  together  the  drafts  of  letters  of  the  minis- 
tros  generales  remitting  materials  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies  for  action. 
As  a  rule,  the  other  documents  of  the  expediente  do  not  appear,  al- 
though in  some  cases,  usually  of  minor  interest,  they  are  present. 
Were  the  file  complete,  it  would  be  of  very  great  importance,  because 
of  the  range  of  the  subject-matter,  despite  the  lack  of  detail — nothing 
but  the  summary  in  the  remitting  letter.  For  many  years,  however, 
(1738-1744,  1747,  1748,  1750-1755,  1757,  1758,  1760-1762,  1765) 
there  were  no  such  letters;  in  very  few  years  were  there  more  than 
ten;  and,  in  any  event,  the  drafts  for  the  more  important  matters  do 
not  seem  to  have  been  filed  here.  Nevertheless,  a  number  of  docu- 
ments not  found  in  other  legajos  were  indicated  here,  and  twenty-four 
items  were  entered.  In  the  case  of  materials  dealing  with  Bishop 
Reyes's  difficulties  in  connection  with  the  custodias  of  San  Gabriel 
.(Alta  California),  Sonora,  and  New  Mexico,  the  accompanying  docu- 
ments are  present.  Possibly  the  most  important  of  the  material  not 
catalogued  was  the  complete  file,  dated  1798,  of  documents  giving 
most  ample  statistical  data  for  the  intendancy  of  Guadalajara.  The 
case  of  the  Frenchman,  Pedro  Molina,  referred  to  in  the  description  of 


16  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

legajo  103-3-12,  is  also  well  documented  here.  Another  legajo  in  this 
set,  namely,  legajo  103-3-22,  for  the  years  1801  to  1821,  was  not  exam- 
ined for  cataloguing. — NPC 

24.  Legajos  103-3-24  and  25.  Ynformes  sobre  el  estado  de  las  Pro- 
vincias  Ynternas  por  su  comandante  general  D.  Teodoro  de  Croix.  Anos 
1781  a  1782.  These  two  legajos  contain  some  of  the  most  important 
materials  discovered  by  the  present  writer,  especially  legajo  103-3-24, 
of  over  three  thousand  pages,  in  which  appear  certain  memorials, 
heroic  in  size  and  equally  valuable,  by  Teodoro  de  Croix.  Three  of 
these  memorials  (catalogued  at  numbers  4,082,  4,430,  and  4,568)  repre- 
sent perhaps  the  most  thorough  statement  with  regard  to  the  region  of 
the  Provincias  Internas,  especially  as  regards  Indian  warfare,  that 
ever  was  made.  While  Sonora,  Nueva  Vizcaya,  and  Coahuila  occupy 
the  major  part  of  the  space,  the  entire  area  of  his  government,  from 
the  Californias  to  Texas,  comes  in  for  an  illuminating  discussion  by 
Croix.  There  are  but  nine  documents  in  the  legajo.  Croix's  letter, 
number  788,  and  its  two  enclosures,  deahng  with  the  miUtia  of  Saltillo 
and  vicinity,  were  not  entered.  None  of  the  documents  in  legajo 
103-3-25  were  catalogued,  although  the  materials  are  important  in 
their  relations  to  the  Spanish  line  of  advance  to  Texas.  The  entire 
legajo  (over  two  thousand  pages  in  length)  is  a  single  expediente,  of 
which  the  principal  document  is  Teodoro  de  Croix's  letter,  number  835, 
to  Jos6  de  Gdlvez,  enclosing  four  carpetas,  of  which  the  first  (the  bulk 
of  the  legajo)  is  divided  into  four  cuadernos.  The  documents  are  wholly 
about  military  affairs  in  Coahuila  and  the  adjacent  parts  of  Texas, 
during  the  period  of  Ugalde's  rule  in  Coahuila,  dealing  principally 
with  Ugalde's  campaigns  against  the  Mescaleros  Apaches. — NPC 

25.  Legato  103-3-26.  Padrones  de  matriculas  de  familias  pobla- 
doras.  Anos  1777  d  I8O4.  While  nothing  in  this  legajo  was  entered, 
the  material  is  decidedly  important  in  itself.  Most  of  the  legajo  is 
made  up  of  padrones,  or  census  reports,  of  the  year  1777.  The  padrones 
are  nearly  all  for  the  province  of  Guadalajara  (not  the  entire  area  em- 
braced by  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Audiencia),  although  they  also  exist 
for  the  cities  of  Culiacdn,  Durango,  and  some  others.  They  cover  all 
householders  and  their  families  and  servants,  giving  the  age  and  blood 
(Spanish,  mulatto,  "coyote",  Indian)  of  each  person.  Among  the  few 
other  documents  of  the  legajo  is  a  representation  concerning  the  prov- 
ince of  Guadalajara,  giving  most  detailed  data  concerning  geographical, 
political,  military,  financial,  commercial,  agricultural,  mining,  stock- 
raising,  and  industrial  affairs  of  the  province  of  Guadalajara.  This 
document  is  dated  September  6, 1804. — NPC 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  17 

26.  Legajo  103-3-28.  Provisiones  de  Empleos  PoUticos  y  Militares. 
Anos  1761  a  1794-  This  is  the  first  legajo  in  a  set  of  two,  the  second 
being  for  the  years  1795  to  1804.  The  title  and  dates  of  the  legajo 
aroused  hopes  that  were  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  mihtary 
appointments  were  comparatively  few;  those  of  officials  of  the  Audiencia 
of  Guadalajara,  alcaldes,  and  treasury  and  custom  officials  filled  most 
of  the  legajo.  By  no  means  all  of  the  appointments  are  included; 
there  are  none  for  1762  and  1763,  [due  to  the  war?]  although  other 
years  are  at  least  represented.     Ten  items  were  entered.— 7NPC 

27.  Legajo  103-4-4.  Confirmacion  de  oficios  vendibles  y  renunciables. 
Anos  1766  d  1773.  This  is  one  of  a  set  of  six,  for  the  years  1760  to 
1799,  dealing  with  royal  confirmations  in  the  case  of  offices  that  were 
salable  and  renunciable.  The  offices  concerned  were  those  of  notary 
and  regidor  in  towns  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Audiencia  of  Gua- 
dalajara, but  not,  as  a  rule,  in  that  city  itself.  Nothing  was  entered. — 
NPC 

28.  Legajos  103-4-9  and  10.  Correspondencia  con  el  Comandante 
general  de  las  Provincias  Internas.  Legajo  103-4-9  is  for  the  years 
1760  to  1782,  and  Legajo  103-4-10,  for  1782  to  1802,  but  the  inclusive 
dates  are  not  strictly  observed.  A  third  legajo,  covering  to  the  year 
1821,  was  not  examined.  The  two  legajos  yielded  187  items  for  the 
Catalogue,  including  materials  concerning  the  founding  of  settlements  in 
Alta  California  during  the  Neve  regime,  and  such  important  items  as 
those  numbered  3,965,  4,912,  and  5,194  in  the  Catalogue.  In  general, 
however,  the  documents  are  not  of  a  noteworthy  character.  Not  a  few 
presidial  appointments  are  included.  The  uncatalogued  expedientes 
are  principally  concerned  with  events  in  Nueva  Vizcaya,  together  with 
a  lesser  number  for  the  other  eastern  provinces  just  south  of  the  pres- 
ent American  border.  In  this  group  are  documents  dealing  with  the 
Indian  wars  of  the  Bolson  de  Mapimf  and  elsewhere,  some  census  re- 
ports (e.g.,  one  for  Coahuila  in  1778,  showing  the  population  accord- 
ing to  differences  in  blood,  enumerating  the  arms  and  Hvestock  the 
people  had,  and  giving  data  about  the  fertility  of  Coahuilan  soil), 
an  expediente  based  on  a  letter  of  Croix's  stating  why  he  was  remain- 
ing in  Nueva  Vizcaya  (instead  of  going  to  Sonora,  as  ordered),  material 
about  the  status  and  rank  of  the  companias  volantes,  a  review  of  Rio 
Grande  presidio,  and  other  expedientes  of  a  like  character.  Attention 
may  be  called  to  the  large  number  of  indices  of  letters  written  by  the 
comandantes  generales,  especially  in  legajo  103-4-10;  in  this  respect, 
the  file  approaches  completeness.     A  document  in  legajo   103-4-10 


18  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

about  the  gold  and  silver  output  of  Chile  seems  to  have  been  placed 
there  by  mistake. — NPC 

29.  Legajos  103-4-12  to  14.  Corresponda.  con  el  Comandante  gene- 
ral de  las  Provincias  Ynternas  D.  Teodoro  de  Croix.  Legajo  103-4-12 
is  for  1779,  and  each  of  the  other  two  legajos,  for  1782.  In  the  case 
of  the  first  legajo,  the  year  is  that  of  letters  by  Croix  (and  a  number 
by  Bucarely  and  the  president  of  the  Audiencia  of  Guadalajara)  in 
New  Spain;  in  the  other  two  legajos  it  is  the  date  of  Gdlvez's  replies 
from  Spain,  while  most  of  Croix's  letters  are  for  the  years  1779  to  1781. 
The  basis  for  entry  in  cataloguing  these  legajos  was  restricted  to  items 
bearing  upon  Alta  California  and  the  approaches  thereto,  with  a  yield 
of  185  items.  Among  these  documents,  there  is  much  material  about 
Neve's  activities  for  an  increase  in  the  number  of  settlers  and  settle- 
ments in  Alta  California,  with  indications  of  the  progress  achieved  by 
the  missions  and  'pueblos  that  were  founded.  Papers  about  Anza's 
discovery  of  a  route  from  New  Mexico  to  Sonora  and  others  about  the 
insubordination  of  the  troops  at  Terrenate,  as  a  result  of  the  treat- 
ment accorded  them  in  the  matter  of  purchasing  supplies,  are  note- 
worthy items.  If  material  for  Texas  and  provinces  of  the  Provincias 
Internas  contiguous  to  it  had  been  included,  the  number  of  entered 
items  would  have  been  more  than  doubled,  and  many  interesting  docu- 
ments would  have  been  added.  There  is  a  great  deal  about  Apache 
warfare  in  Coahuila  and  Texas  and  local  materials  for  San  Sabd,  Paso 
del  Norte,  and  various  posts  along  the  southern  bank  of  the  Rfo. 
Grande.  Another  type  of  expediente  of  frequent  appearance  is  that  of 
the  ultimas  noiicias  (latest  news)  letters,  many  of  which  were  entered, 
about  Indian  warfare  in  the  Provincias  Internas  during  the  preceding 
month,  with  an  indication  of  the  losses  incurred  and  inflicted,  by  the 
Spaniards  and  Indians  respectively.^^ — NPC 

30.  Legajos  103-4-15  to  24  and  103-5-1  to  13.  Duplicados  de 
Comandantes  generales  de  las  provincias  Ynternas.  These  twenty- 
three  legajos.  dating  from  1771  to  1802,  form  part  of  a  set  of  which  there 
are  five  more  legajos,  for  the  years  1803  to  1821.  In  no  group  were  the 
rules  for  exclusion  of  material  from    the  Catalogue  more  rigorously 

"  Many  of  the  documents  in  legajo  103^^12  were  nearly  as  solid  and  hard  as 
wood  when  foulM  by  the  writer.  They  appear  to  have  become  water-soaked, 
and  then  to  have  remained  perhaps  a  hundred  years  or  more  before  they  were 
opened,  by  the  writer,  for  examination.  Once  the  stiffness  had  been  taken 
out,  they  were  as  pliable  as  most  other  manuscript  material,  but  the  writing  was 
all  but  illegible. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  19 

applied.  Only  such  documents  as  referred  to  the  Calif ornias  or  had  a 
very  direct  bearing  on  the  affairs  of  Alta  California  were  entered. 
Thus,  material  for  New  Mexico  and  Texas  (except  in  legajos  103-4-15, 
and  16)  was  not  entered,  unless  it  appeared  in  documents  referring  to 
the  Californias.  Down  to  1783,  Sonora  materials  were  entered  liber- 
ally, but  after  that  date,  when  the  Spanish  advance  by  way  of  the 
Gila  and  Colorado  rivers  had  in  fact  stopped,  the  Sonora  documents 
were  omitted. 

Legajos  103-4-15  and  16  are  to  be  regarded  separately  from  the 
others  of  the  set.  Of  fifty-two  items  that  were  entered,  comprising 
most  of  the  two  legajos,  one  is  an  '^estado"  showing  the  condition  of  the 
frontier  presidios  in  1771,  except  those  of  the  Californias  and  Nuevo 
Santander;  another  is  the  printed  decree  establishing  a  line  of  frontier 
presidios;  and  the  other  fifty,  the  basis  for  the  two  just  named,  are 
testimonios  covering  the  inspection  of  the  frontier  presidios  by  the 
Marques  de  Rubf  in  the  years  1766  to  1768.  All  are  dated  1771,  the 
year  the  testimonios  were  made  up,  but  the  various  documents  within 
the  testimonios  are  for  the  years  of  the  Rubf  inspection.  Among  the 
few  unentered  materials,  there  is  one  expediente  of  1777,  based  on  re- 
ports of  Governor  Barry  of  Nueva  Vizcaya,  reciting  the  misfortunes 
of  his  province  as  a  result  of  Indian  wars;  one  estado  in  this  expediente 
shows  the  losses  by  each  alcadia  in  men  and  property  since  1771. 

The  duplicados  proper  begin  with  legajo  103-4-17  of  the  year  1778. 
Just  as  in  the  case  of  the  already  described  duplicados  in  the'^Audiencia 
of  Mexico"  group,  the  general  comment  for  which  applies,  they  are 
made  up  principally  of  the  numbered  duplicates  (and  their  enclosures) 
in  the  series  of  the  letters  of  the  comandantes  generales  of  the  Provincias 
Internas  to  the  ministros  generales  in  Spain.^^  They  are  of  unquestion- 
able importance  (despite  the  lack  of  the  drafts  of  replies  from  Spain) 
for  the  affairs  of  the  Provincias  Internas  during  practically  the  entire 
period  in  which  they  formed  a  comandancia  general  in  a  measure  dis- 
tinct from  the  viceroyalty  of  New  Spain.  Not  a  few  letters  in  the 
numbered  series  are  missing,  but  it  is  often  possible  to  determine 
what  they  deal  with,  through  the  presence  of  indices  of  the  correspond- 
ence for  a  given  month's  mail.     In  three  legajos  (103-4-19,  103-5-4, 

1*  As  in  the  case  of  the  Audiencia  of  Mexico,  a  number  of  documents  appear 
to  be  the  original,  instead  of  the  duplicate.  One  wonders  if  it  were  not  due, 
in  many  instances,  to  the  failure  of  a  clerk  to  write  a  "D"  on  the  document, 
since  that  is  the  only  way  in  which  these  materials  differ  from  originals.  There 
are  not  a  few  triplicates  instead  of  duplicates. 


20  THE  mSPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

and  103-5-7)  there  are  expedientes  based  on  letters  of  intendants  to  the 
authorities  in  Spain;  in  two  (103-5-7  and  8),  of  the  president  of  the 
Audiencia  of  Guadalajara;  in  two  (103-5-4  and  103-5-7),  of  various 
individuals,  particularly  ecclesiastical  officials;  in  four  (103-5-8  to  10 
and  103-7-12),  based  on  unnumbered  letters  of  Ugarte;  and  in  one 
(103-5-9),  on  the  unnumbered  letters  of  Nava.  Beginning  with  legajo 
103-4-17,  there  were  1,060  expedientes  in  the  numbered  letter  series  of 
the  comandantes  generates.  From  a  regional  standpoint  they  deal  most 
prominently  with  the  provinces  from  Sonora  to  Coahuila.  Texas  fares 
well — Alta  Cahfornia  and  New  Mexico,  less  so.  In  all,  150  expedientes, 
or  portions  of  them,  with  459  documents,  were  catalogued. 

Among  outstanding  entered  materials  may  be  mentioned  the  follow- 
ing: duplicates  of  Croix's  voluminous  memorials  already  referred  to  in 
the  description  of  legajo  103-3-24;  the  acts  of  the  junta  de  guerra 
held  by  Croix  at  Chihuahua  in  1778,  about  military  policies  for  the 
Provincias  Internas;  various  expedientes  about  Neve's  activities  in  Alta 
California  in  founding  new  settlements,  and  in  preparing  and  putting 
into  execution  a  new  reglamento;  expedientes  about  the  progress  of  the 
settlements  founded  by  Neve,  especially  San  Jose  and  Los  Angeles; 
the  reviews  of  Alta  California  presidios;  various  expedientes  about  the 
founding  of  Spanish  settlements  at  the  junction  of  the  Gila  and  Colorado 
rivers,  the  Yuma  disaster  of  1781,  the  ensuing  campaigns  against  the 
Yumas,  and  the  abandonment  of  the  land  route  to  Alta  California; 
Neve's  instructions  to  Fages,  who  succeeded  him  as  governor  of  the 
Californias;  the  important  estado  catalogued  as  number  4828;  and  the 
expediente  of  the  successful  Ziiniga  expedition  to  discover  a  route 
between  New  Mexico  and  Sonora. 

The  unentered  material  includes  numerous  expedientes  about  Indian 
warfare,  not  only  in  Nueva  Vizcaya  and  Coahuila,  but  also  against  the 
Apaches  in  Texas,  the  Comanches  in  New  Mexico,  and  (after  1783) 
the  Seris  and  Apaches  of  the  Gila  in  Sonora.  There  is  also  much  local 
material  for  Paso  del  Norte,  San  Antonio  de  Bexar,  San  Saba,  and 
other  places  within  or  near  the  present  American  boundary  in  New 
Mexico  and  Texas.  Among  other  items,  the  following  may  be  noted: 
service  sheets,  in  each  of  several  years,  of  all  the  military  officials  of 
the  frontier,  including  governors,  adjutant  inspectors,  captains,  lieu- 
tenants, alfereces,  sergeants,  cadetes,  and  adjutant  majors  of  militia,  of 
which  only  those  of  men  known  to  have  had  a  direct  connection  with 
Alta  Cahfornia  history  were  entered;  reviews  of  presidios  other  than 
those  of  Alta  California;  twelve  expedientes  (in  legajo  103-4-23)  about 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  21 

the  formation  of  militia  companies  in  Nueva  Vizcaya,  and  the  ques- 
tions arising  therefrom;  and  an  expediente  of  1795,  of  about  six  hundred 
pages,  dealing  with  religious  affairs  in  New  Mexico.^^ — NPC 

31.  Legajo  103-5-20.  Correspondencia  con  los  Gobernadores,  In- 
tendentes  de  Nueva  Vizcaya  y  otras  Provincial  Interna^.  Anos  1736  a 
1821.  This  is  a  poorly  organized  legajo,  with  material  for  all  of  the 
frontier  provinces,  but  mostly  concerned  with  Sonora  and  Durango. 
The  principal  basis  of  the  expedientes  is  the  correspondence  of  the 
governors  and  intendants  directly  with  the  authorities  in  Spain.  The 
legajo  deals  primarily  with  petitions  for  promotion,  and  appointments  to 
office.  Occasionally,  important  matter  of  a  general  nature  appears 
relative  to  these  appointments,  fts  in  the  case  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
junta  de  guerra  that  considered  yallardo's  notable  report  about  condi- 
tions in  Sonora,  in  which  Gallardo  recommended  the  opening  of  land 
communication  with  the  Californias  from  Sonora;  this  comes  up  in 
connection  with  the  appointment  of  Diego  Parrilla  as  governor  of 
Sinaloa  and  Sonora.  The  legajo  is  by  no  means  inclusive  of  the  corre- 
spondence of  the  governors  and  intendants,  only  a  few  of  whom  are 
represented  at  all.  Thirty-one  items  were  entered.  There  is  consid- 
erable material  about  Indian  affairs  in  Durango  which  is  perhaps  the 
most  noteworthy  of  the  uncatalogued  documents.  Two  similar  legajos, 
not  examined  for  cataloguing,  are  103-5-19,  described  as  containing 
the  correspondence  of  the  governors  and  intendants  of  Nuevo  Leon, 
New  Mexico,  and  Nuevo  Santander  from  1730  to  1821,  and  103-5-21, 
similarly  for  Coahuila,  Durango,  and  Texas  from  1738  to  1821. — 
NPC 

32.  Legajo  103-5-25.  Correspondencia  con  los  Presidentes  de  la 
Audiencia.  Anos  1734  d  1805.  Like  the  legajo  just  described,  this  too 
in  no  sense  approaches  completeness  within  the  terms  of  its  description. 
There  are  letters  of  the  presidents  of  the  Audiencia  of  Guadalajara 
between  the  years  named,  with  also  some  letters  of  prior,  and  some  of 
later,  date;  but  presumably  the  correspondence  in  the  legajo  is  a  very 
small  fraction  of  the  entire  amount  for  the  period  covered,  most  of  the 
years  containing  none  whatever.  An  interesting  feature  of  the  legajo 
is  the  hght  it  throws  on  the  acquisition  of  the  presidency  of  the  Audi- 
encia, since  petitions  for  that  post  and  appointments  to  it  form  a  large 
part  of  the  material  in  the  legajo.    The  office  was  purchasable,  the  usual 

"  One  expediente  in  legajo  103-5-3,  based  on  Croix's  letter,  number  939,  bore 
the  marks  placed  on  a  file  when  it  is  removed  (usually  for  copying)  from  a  legajo. 


22  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

price  being  24,000  pesos  fiiertes  for  a  term  of  eight  years.  The  pos- 
sessor might  fill  the  post  himself,  name  somebody  else  to  serve  in  his 
place,  or  even  bequeath  his  title  to  an  heir.  Not  only  were  single 
terms  sold,  but  also  the  reversion  after  the  expiration  of  a  first  or 
even  a  second  term.  There  is  also  much  material  of  a  more  general 
character  for  affairs  within  the  area  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Audiencia. 
The  only  entered  material  was  an  expediente  of  thirteen  documents  for 
the  years  1740  to  1744,  deahng  with  the  activities  of  the  Marques  de 
Aysa  to  protect  the  west  coast  against  the  EngUsh  expedition  of  Anson 
and  any  other  EngHsh  ships  which  might  appear. — NPC 

33.  Legago  103-6-19.  Espediente  sobre  cuentas  de  las  rentas  del  Hos- 
pital Real  de  San  Cosme  y  S.  Damian  de  Durango.  Anos  1771.  The 
title  is  a  sufficient  indication  of  the  contents  of  the  legajo.  Nothing 
was  entered. — NPC 

34.  Legajo  103-6-21.  Espediente  sobre  el  establecimiento  dela  pob- 
lacion  del  Carrizal  y  del  Presidio  de  la  Junta  de  los  rios  del  norte  y  concho. 
Anos  1759  a  1760.  This  contains  only  the  two  testimonios  catologued 
at  numbers  454  and  455,  aggregating  over  nine  hundred  pages  and  deal- 
ing with  the  question  of  protecting  the  Nueva  Vizcaya  frontier  from 
the  raids  of  the  Indians  of  Texas,  through  the  founding  of  a  presidio  on 
the  Rio  Grande.— NPC 

35.  Legajos  103-6-23  to  31  and  103-7-1  to  12.  Cartas  y  espedientes. 
These  twenty-one  legajos  dating  from  1744  to  1785,  are  in  a  series  con- 
taining seventeen  more,  which  carry  the  inclusive  dates  to  1800. 
Legajo  103-6-23  embraces  the  years  1744  to  1760,  but  the  majority 
of  the  others  are  for  a  single  year.  The  material  in  legajo  103-6-23, 
most  of  which  was  entered,  is  in  disorder,  indicating  a  probabihty  of 
its  having  been  used,  although  there  were  no  copy  marks.  Legajo 
103-7-11  seems  also  to  have  been  used,  for  it  is  in  wild  disorder,  al- 
though lacking  removal  marks,  but  the  material  which  bears  no  ob- 
servable relation  to  the  numbered  expedientes,  constituting  three-fourths 
of  the  legajo,  may  once  have  formed  one  expediente,  for  it  relates  to  a 
single  idea.  The  other  legajos  retain  the  original  good  order  of  their 
filing.  The  materials  are  in  groups  of  years,  with  a  series  of  numbered 
expedientes  in  each  year,  very  few  of  the  serial  numbers  of  which  are 
missing.  The  last  bundle  in  each  year's  list  is  composed  of  brief  expe- 
dientes of  but  one  or  a  few  documents  each,  upon  which  no  action  by  the 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  23 

authorities  in  Spain  was  necessary.  The  documents  were  merely  read, 
therefore,  and  filed.  These  papers  are  called  Cartas  de  visto,  of  which 
there  are  about  thirty  in  each  annual  group  of  this  set.  Most  of  them 
are  acknowledgments  of  the  receipt  of  royal  orders,  or  announcements 
of  installation  in  office.  Counting  each  year's  Cartas  de  visto  bundle 
as  one  expediente,  there  are  261  expedientes  in  twenty  of  the  legajos 
investigated,  excluding  legajo  103-6-23.  Fifteen  expedientes  were  cata- 
logued, together  with  some  of  the  material  in  four  of  the  Cartas  de 
visto  bundles,  yielding  fifty-seven  items,  or  a  total  of  eighty-two  with 
the  twenty-five  of  legajo  103-6-23.  These  include  New  Mexico  and 
Texas  items. 

While  less  narrowly  personal  than  the  papers  of  the  Espedientes 
diaries  (discussed  in  the  next  following  section),  those  of  this  set  are 
also  of  an  administrative  character,  of  matters  that  came  up  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  business,  somewhat  general  in  subject-matter  at 
times,  though  locally  applied.  Much  of  a  judicial  character  and,  es- 
pecially in  the  later  legajos,  much  pertaining  to  the  church,  more  par- 
ticularly the  secular  ai-m,  appear.  The  expedientes  for  the  year  1760 
are  illustrative  of  the  whole  set.  They  treat  of  the  following  subjects: 
salaries  of  alcaldes  mayores;  the  decision  that  corregidores,  alcaldes, 
and  justices  should  reside  in  the  principal  town  of  their  district;  a  re- 
quest for  an  explanation  of  a  decree  with  reference  to  matrimony;  the 
inabihty  of  Indian  widows  to  pay  tribute;  the  sale  of  certain  ofiices; 
the  collection  of  certain  sums  from  the  cathedral  of  Guadalajara;  the 
need  of  a  greater  population  in  Coahuila;  the  visit  of  the  bishop  in  Nuevo 
Le6n  and  Texas;  the  question  whether  the  oficiales  reales  of  Durango, 
Guadalajara,  or  Mexico  should  handle  the  papers  dealing  with  the 
taking  possession  of  office  by  officials  in  New  Mexico;  about  a  settle- 
ment north  of  the  mouth  of  the  Efo  Grande  without  any  pastor;  and 
Cartas  de  visto.  Occasionally,  material  of  some  importance  is  to  be 
found  in  the  legajos.  The  following  items  show  this:  measures  taken 
as  a  result  of  the  appearance  of  Dutch  ships  off  the  Pacific  coast  of  New 
Spain,  and  as  a  result  of  the  capture  of  Frenchmen  in  New  Mexico  and 
Texas,  both  in  legajo  103-6-23;  and  the  116  page  summary  for  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Indies  of  the  expediente  in  which  the  most  noteworthy  document 
was  the  Lizaz6in  memorial  about  conditions  in  Sonora  and  problems  of 
northwestward  advance,  in  legajo  103-6-25  (mentioned  in  item  560  of 
the  Catalogue) . 

Several  items  of  interest  were  not  entered,  some  of  which  would  usu- 
ally have  been  regarded  as  within  the  plan  of  the  Catalogue.    The  items 


24  THE   HISPANIC  AMERICAN   HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

follow:  a  voluminous  expediente  arising  from  a  lawsuit  in  connection 
with  pearl-fishing  in  the  Gulf  of  California,  the  only  uncatalogued  mate- 
rial of  legajo  103-6-23;  an  expediente  about  the  establishment  of  the 
alcabala  in  Culiacdn,  Ostimuri,  Real  del  Rosario,  and  Sonora,  in  legajo 
103-6-25;  two  expedientes  about  the  Frenchman  Pedro  Molina,  who 
was  married  to  a  woman  of  Guadalajara  and  was  interested  in  mining, 
but  was  living  at  Guadalajara  without  the  permit  required  in  the  case 
of  a  foreigner,  in  legajos  103-6-30  and  103-6-31;  the  project  of  a  citi- 
zen of  Guadalajara  for  the  establishment  of  eight  royal  banks  in  the 
two  Americas  for  the  benefit  of  miners,  and  an  expediente  about  the 
division  of  the  Californias  between  the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans, 
both  in  legajo  103-7-1 ;  an  expediente  about  reducing  the  price  of  quick- 
silver at  Bolanos,  so  as  to  assist  in  developing  mineral  wealth  there,  in 
legajo  103-7-2;  two  expedientes  about  secularizing  certain  Franciscan 
missions  in  Nueva  Galicia,  in  legajos  103-7-3  and  103-7-11;  and  several 
expedientes  of  the  year  1777  concerning  the  difficulties  arising  between 
the  viceroyalty  and  the  comandanda  general  of  the  Provincias  Internas, 
as  a  result  of  the  establishment  of  the  latter,  in  legajo  103-7-5. — NPC 
36.  Legajos  104-1-6  to  14.  Espedientes  diarios.  Anos  1760  d  1799. 
This  is  another  well-ordered  set  of  legajos,  the  material  being  arranged 
in  packages  covering  a  single  year,  within  which  the  expedientes  have 
a  consecutive  numbering.  The  documents  are  usually  of  a  minor  ad- 
ministrative character,  almost  whoUy  concerned  with  the  petitions  of 
individuals  about  matters  of  personal  interest  to  them.  Petitions  to  be 
allowed  to  go  to  the  Indies,  or  to  carry  certain  relatives  and  servants 
there,  petitions  for  a  right  to  marry,  requests  for  office  or  for  promotion, 
claims  for  sums  of  money,  requests  for  confirmations  in  office  or  in 
social  standing — it  is  of  such  material  that  the  legajos  are  made  up. 
Aside  from  their  institutional  possibilities,  the  documents  are  occa- 
sionally of  value  because  they  deal  with  some  official  in  whom  the 
investigator  has  an  interest  or  because  they  refer  incidentally,  in  sup- 
porting the  petition  in  question,  to  events  that  are  within  the  scope  of 
an  investigation.  In  the  case  of  the  Catalogue,  seventeen  expedientes 
(of  which  fourteen  come  in  legajos  104-1-6  and  7),  yielding  forty-nine 
items,  were  entered,  out  of  a  total  of  422  expedientes.  Two  of  the  en- 
tered expedientes,  one  dealing  with  the  establishment  of  the  Dominicans 
in  Baja  Cahfomia,  and  the  other  giving  complete  and  detailed  informa- 
tion as  to  the  expense  of  the  Department  of  San  Bias  and  the  Califor- 
nias from  1768  to  1774,  proved  to  be  material  of  importance  for  the 
Catalogue — serving  as  illustrations  of  the  way  in  which  valuable  items 
are  occasionally  buried  in  impromising  legajos. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  25 

At  a  period  of  more  liberal  interpretation  of  the  rules  for  entry,  the 
following  expedientes  might  also  have  been  catalogued :  legajo  104-1-7, 
1769,  no.  1 — petition  for  permission  to  fill  vacancies  at  the  College  of 
San  Fernando,  Mexico,  caused  by  the  sending  of  missionaries  to  the 
Calif ornias;  legajo  104-1-7,  1769,  no.  2— petition  for  permission  to  fill 
vacancies  at  the  College  of  Santa  Cruz,  Quer^taro,  caused  by  the  send- 
ing of  missionaries  to  Sinaloa  and  Sonora;  legajo  104-1-7,  1770,  no.  2 — 
petition  of  Thomas  Prieto  to  go  to  the  Indies  to  serve  as  a  missionary 
in  the  Cahfornias,  the  petition  being  denied  on  the  ground  that  Prieto 
was  over  fifty  years  old;^^  legajo  104-1-10, 1780,  no.  5— grant  of  the  rank 
of  city  to  Arispe,  Sonora,  because  it  was  to  be  the  capital  of  the  Provin- 
cias  Internas  and  the  seat  of  a  bishopric;  legajo  104-1-10,  1782,  no.  8 — 
petition  of  Francisco  Sdnchez  Zuiiiga,  a  Queretaran  friar  who  had  spent 
ten  years  as  a  missionary  in  Pimerfa  Alta,  to  be  allowed  to  return  to 
Spain;  legajo  104-1-14,  1799,  nos.  3  to  6 — petitions  of  five  Dominicans, 
who  had  served  twenty  years  in  Baja  California,  to  be  made  masters  in 
their  order;  legajo  104-1-14, 1799,  no.  10 — petition  of  a  Dominican,  who 
had  served  in  Baja  California,  to  be  made  predicador  general  of  his 
order.— NPC 

37.  Legajo  104-2-13.  Espedientes  e  ynstancias  de  partes.  Anosl766 
d  1777.  This  is  one  of  a  set  of  twelve  which  cover  the  years  1732  to 
1826.  The  material  is  concerned  with  the  petitions  of  individuals  for 
office,  more  pay,  promotion,  financial  assistance,  and,  in  the  case  of 
widows,  for  pensions.  Except  for  a  few  petitions  by  members  of  the 
clergy,  the  individuals  concerned  were  civil  officials  already  in  govern- 
ment employ.  Little  of  value  appeared,  but  eight  items  were  entered. 
—NPC 

38.  Legajo  104-2-25.  Duplicados  de  sugetos  particulares  del  distrito 
de  aquella  Audiencia.  Anos  1707  a  1809.  Another  legajo  with  the  same 
title  is  for  the  years  1653  to  1706.  The  title  of  legajo  104-2-25  does 
not  fit  the  material  exactly,  for  there  are  a  number  of  expedientes  which 
are  general  in  nature  and  of  more  than  ordinary  value,  some  documents 
which  are  not  duplicates,  and  some  dated  as  late  as  1816.  Most  of 
the  papers,  however,  do  relate  to  matters  concerning  individuals,  and 
are  duplicates,  within  the  dates  given.  The  greater  part  of  the  legajo 
treats  of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  The  nature  of  the  materials  is  well  il- 
lustrated by  the  following  items,  which  were  regarded  as  just  too  remote 

"  This  is  the  only  petition  in  the  set  of  an  individual  wishing  to  go  to  the 
Californias.  It  may  also  be  worthy  of  note,  that  the  other  matters  of  the  legajo 
(appointments,  etc.)  do  not  relate  directly  to  the  Californias. 


26  THE   HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL   REVIEW 

for  entry:  an  expediente  of  175  pages  about  an  uprising,  in  1720,  of  the 
eleven  Indian  pueblos  of  the  Rfo  del  Norte  (Rfo  Grande) ;  various  expe- 
dientes  about  affairs  in  Nueva  Vizcaya  during  the  rule  of  Governor  Bela- 
unzardn,  notably  a  seventeen-page  letter  of  1740  by  the  governor  him- 
self; a  letter  of  the  Marques  de  Torre  Campo,  in  1747,  relating  nis 
achievements  as  governor  of  Nucva  Vizcaya,  and  discussing  the  state 
of  affairs  there;  a  gossipy  letter  of  the  bishop  of  Guadalajara,  March  13, 
1746,  in  response  to  a  request  from  the  authorities  in  Spain,  describing 
the  various  officials  of  Guadalajara,  including  Echeverz,  president  of 
the  Audiencia,  and  the  Marques  de  Aysa,  a  past  and  future  president; 
and  an  expediente  of  150  pages,  dated  1796,  concerning  the  residencia 
of  Pedro  Tueros,  governor  of  Coahuila.  A  curious  item  is  the  poetic 
effusion  of  the  Marques  de  Torre  Campo  on  the  accession  of  Ferdinand 
VI.  Twenty-seven  items  were  entered,  including  an  important  expe- 
diente of  1809  about  the  governmental  restrictions  on  immigration  into 
Coahuila  and  Texas. — NPC 

39.  Legajo  104-3-1.  Espediente  sohre  la  historia  de  la  conquista  de  la 
Nueva  Galicia  escrito  por  el  Licdo.  D.  Matias  delaMota.  Afios  1760. 
This  tiny  legajo  of  fifty  pages  is  concerned  with  the  petition  of  Mota 
Padilla  for  the  publication  of  his  book,  this  much  being  granted,  and 
for  certain  official  positions  in  Guadalajara  that  he  desired.  Nothing 
was  entered.^"— NPC 

40.  Legajo  104-3-2.  Espediente  de  la  espedicion  hecha  a  la  Sonora 
por  D.  Jose  de  Galvez  y  donativos  que  para  ello  se  hicieron.  Anos  1766 
d  1773.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  objects  of  the  Catalogue,  this  was 
one  of  the  richest  of  the  legajos.  It  was  in  such  admirably  good  order 
that  it  can  hardly  have  been  used  before  the  writer  came  upon  it.  The 
entire  legajo  was  entered,  yielding  340  items.  The  title  of  the  legajo 
is  not  adequate  to  describe  the  material  it  contains.  The  documents 
show  that  Jos6  de  Gdlvez  and  the  Marques  de  Croix  formed  a  plan, 
which  was  later  carried  on  by  Bucarely,  for  the  development  and  ad- 
vance of  the  northern  frontier  of  New  Spain,  not  only  in  Sonora,  but 
also  along  the  whole  line,  from  the  Califomias  to  Texas.  The  central 
idea  was  the  suppression  of  the  rebellious  Indians  of  Sonora  and  an 
advance  to  the  Gila  and  Colorado  rivers.  As  a  preliminary,  how- 
ever, Alta  California  was  to  be  occupied,  Baja  California  made  pros- 
perous,  or,   at  least,   freed  from  existing    evils    that    retarded    its 

"  The  Mota  Padilla  work  se6m8  not  to  have  been  published  for  over  a  century, 
when  it  appeared  under  the  following  title:  Historia  de  la  conquista  de  la  pro- 
»incia  de  la  Nueva-Galicia.    Mexico.    1870.     [1871-1872]. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  27 

development,  and  the  military  leaders  of  Nueva  Vizcaya,  Coahuila, 
and  Texas  were  to  hold  the  hostile  Indians  in  check,  until  the  Spanish 
troops  from  Sonora  might  come  by  way  of  the  Gila  to  settle  the  issue 
in  the  east.  The  legajo  treats  adequately  of  the  workings  of  the  plan, 
and  is  fullest  for  the  regions  to  which  Gd,lvez  gave  his  principal  atten- 
tion, the  two  Californias  and  Sonora,  and  for  the  years  1768  and 
1769  when  he  personally  was  on  the  scene.  Except  for  papers  stated 
to  have  been  filed  elsewhere,  concerning  Russian  aggressions,  and  for 
certain  of  Gdlvez's  reports  about  the  Alta  California  expeditions  of 
1769,  the  legajo  provides  an  almost  complete  survey  of  Gdlvez's 
activities  in  Baja  California  and  Sonora  until  he  was  taken  sick  in 
1769,  and  furnishes  numerous  documents  about  the  heretofore  little 
known  story  of  the  Sonora  war.  The  great  majority  of  the  docu- 
ments are  copies  of  the  reports  and  enclosures  of  Gdlvez,  Domingo 
Elizondo,  and  others  to  the  viceroy,  forwarded  by  him  to  Julidn  de 
Arriaga,the  ministro  general  in  Spain.^^ — NPC 

41.  Legajo  104-3-3.  Espedicion  hecha  por  tierra  a  Monterrey  en  Ca- 
lifornia. Anos  1768  d  1772.  Like  legajo  104-3-2,  this  also  was  a  valu- 
able legajo,  giving  seventy-six  items,  the  entire  legajo,  for  the  Cata- 
logue. It  did  not.  have  the  completeness  as  to  the  subject-matter 
treated  that  legajo  104-3-2  had,  but  it  furnished  abundant  materials 
concerning  the  Alta  California  expeditions  of  1769,  after  their  arrival 
at  San  Diego.  Thus,  the  march  up  the  peninsula  is  inadequately  re- 
ferred to,  but  the  two  marches  to  Monterey  and  the  occupation  of  +hat 
port  in  1770  are  abundantly  documented.  There  is  also  much  material 
about  the  preliminaries  of  both  the  sea  and  land  expeditions  and  con- 
cerning the  Indian  wars  in  Sonora,  including  the  voluminous  account 
of  Belena,  catalogued  at  number  1940.  The  legajo  had  been  much 
used,  although  still  in  good  order,  and,  except  for  the  Belena  report, 
there  was  hardly  a  document  that  had  not  been  copied.^* 

42.  Legajos  104-3-4  and  5.  Espediente  sohre  la  sublevacion  de  los 
Yndios  de  la  Pimeria  alta  y  sus  incidencias.  Anos  1776.  All  of  the 
material  in  these  valuable  legajos,  155  items  in  all,  was  catalogued. 
The  revolt  discussed  is  not  of  the  year  1775,  but  the  Pima  revoft  of  1751 
and  its  important  consequences.  To  this  subject  are  devoted  half  of 
legajo  104-3-4  and  all  of  legajo  104-3-5.  The  documents  are  princi- 
pally testimonios  of  the  year  1754,  some  of  them  the  result  of  Jesuit 

"  Much  of  this  material  has  since  been  procured  for  the  Bancroft  Library. 
18  The  copies  were  procured  by  Professor  Stephens  for  the  Bancroft  Library. 
The  Beleila  report  also  has  since  been  copied. 


28  THE   HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

efforts  to  exculpate  themselves  from  blame  for  the  uprising,  but  most  of 
them  resulting  from  the  enquiries  of  their  opponent,  Governor  Diego 
Parrilla.  There  are  other  documents  on  this  subject  between  1751  and 
1759.  The  whole  number  furnish  ample  opportunity  for  the  study,  not 
only  of  the  Pima  revolt,  but  also  for  the  affairs  of  Sonora  and  frontier 
conditions  in  general.  The  Spanish  projects  of  advance  by  way  of 
the  Gila  and  Colorado  rivers  are  prominently  to  the  fore  as  well,  as,  for 
example,  in  the  voluminous  Balthasar  and  Gallardo  memorials  of  1753 
and  1758. 

Half  of  legajo  104-3-4  is  devoted  to  Dominican  petitions  for  a  mis- 
sionary field,  in  particular,  in  the  Californias.  The  documents  are  for 
the  years  1760  to  1775,  and  include  much  important  material  other 
than  that  of  the  Dominican  efforts.  There  are  statistical  accounts  of 
the  Baja  California  missions  in  1768  and  in  1773,  the  valuable  Gdlvez 
memorial  of  1773  about  the  division  of  the  Californias  between  the 
Franciscans  of  San  Fernando  and  the  Dominicans,  various  reports  of 
the  fiscales  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies  and  resolutions  on  the  Dominican 
petitions,  and  especially  the  important  plan  of  the  Council  of  March  6, 
1775,  material  also  about  the  Anza  expedition  of  1774,  and,  in  general, 
a  great  deal  bearing  upon  the  region  of  the  Gila  and  Colorado  and  upon 
the  Californias. 

Some  of  the  Dominican  material  had  been  copied,  but  most  of  legajo 
104-3-4  and  all  of  legajo  104-3-5  were  free  from  marks  indicating 
removal  for  copy. 

43.  Legajo  104-3-9.  Consultas,  Materias,  e  Ynformes  de  Real  Ha- 
cienda. Anos  1596  d  1805.  Only  one  document  of  this  legajo,  the 
item  catalogued  as  410,  was  entered,  and  this  seems  to  have  slipped  into 
the  legajo  by  mistake.  Nevertheless,  the  materials  are  extremely  impor- 
tant for  matters  of  finance  in  Spanish  colonial  administration.  The 
papers  are  mostly  concerned  with  the  affairs  of  the  Real  Caja  of  Guada- 
lajara, but  there  are  occasional  references  to  other  cajas  reales  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Audiencia  of  Guadalajara.  Most  of  the  docu- 
ments are  summary  accounts,  and  not  mere  masses  of  figures,  of  the 
recomnfendations  of  the  Contadurfa  General  and  Council  of  the  Indies. 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  documents  of  the  legajo  is  a  testimonio  of 
1765,  forwarded  to  Spain  with  a  letter  of  August  3,  1765,  by  the  ojici- 
ales  reales  of  the  Real  Caja  of  Guadalajara,  of  which  the  title  reads  as 
follows:  Testimonio  de  varias  Certificaciones,  y  diligencias  pertenecientes 
d  Xa  Comprobacion  de  el  Cargo,  y  Data  .  .  .  dela  Real  Hazienda, 
y  Coxa  de  esta  Giudad  de  Guadalaxara  de  veinte  anos  d  esta  parte.    The 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  29 

document  is  a  certified  copy,  116  pages  long.  It  was  written  to  demon- 
strate how  much  more  successful  the  writers  had  been  in"  gathering 
revenues,  in  the  ten-year  period  from  1753  to  1762,  than  their  prede- 
cessors had  been  in  an  equal  length  of  time,  from  1743  to  1752.  Not 
only  did  they  prove  their  case,  but  their  figures  for  the  entire  twenty 
years  show  annual  remittances  to  Mexico,  representing  an  excess  of 
receipts  over  disbursements  of  between  80  and  90  per  cent  of  the 
amounts  collected  by  them.  Figures  are  also  present  for  the  receipts 
of  each  year,  indicating  the  different  sources  of  revenue  and  the  amounts 
they  produced.  This  valuable  document  is  supplemented  by  material 
in  legajo  104-3-21  (presently  to  be  described).^* — NPC 

44.  Legajo  104-3-10.  Provisiones  de  Empleos  de  Real  Hacienda. 
Anos  1764  d  1795.  A  second  legajo  with  this  title  dates  from  1796  to 
1808.  This  legajo  deals  with  the  appointments  and  promotions  of 
oficiales  reales  of  the  more  important  cajas  reales  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Audiencia  of  Guadalajara.     Eleven  items  were  entered. — ^NPC 

45.  Legajo  104-3-18.  Oficiales  Reales  y  siis  dependencias.  Anos 
1768  a  1791.  This  is  the  second  of  four  legajos,  the  whole  series  dating 
from  1743  to  1811,  and  referring  to  the  operation  of  the  Real  Caja  of 
Guadalajara.  While  but  three  inconsequential  items  were  entered, 
the  legajo  has  some  importance  for  matters  of  real  hacienda.  It  covers 
a  wide  range  in  subject-matter,  the  following  being  some  of  the  topics 
that  appear:  projects  for  increasing  revenue;  methods  of  administra- 
tion; letters  enclosing  accounts  for  a  given  period,  and  stating  results; 
occasional  cortes,  tanteos  and  estados^^  which  happened  not  to  be  removed 
to  their  proper  file;  indices  of  the  letters  of  the  o^cmZes  reaves;  and  mat- 
ters concerning  individuals,  such  as  questions  of  salary,  appointments 
to  ofiice,  and  requests  for  permission  to  marry. — NPC 

46.  Legajo  104-3-21.  Estados,  Cortes  y  Tanteos  de  Guadalajara. 
Anos  1761  a  1781.  This  is  one  of  two  legajos,  the  second  carrying  the 
inclusive  dates  to  1807.  The  receipts  and  disbursements  of  the  Real 
Caja  of  Guadalajara  are  covered  with  completeness  for  the  years 
named.  The  cortes  and  tanteos  give  the  cargo  y  data,  or  receipts  and  dis- 
bursements, in  detail  for  the  whole  of  each  year.  Each  of  these  docu- 
ments fills  about  fifty  pages.    They  are  summed  up  in  an  estado,  an 

"  The  materials  of  legajos  104^3-9  and  104r-3-21,  covering  the  years  1742  to 
1781,  were  used  in  Chapman,  The  Founding  of  Spanish  California,  pp.  52,  53,  455, 
456,  and  appendix  II.  between  pp.  456-457. 

*«  These  terms  are  defined  in  the  next  following  legajo  description. 


30  THE   HISPANIC   AMERICAN   HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

exceedingly  neat  piece  of  work  on  a  single  sheet,^^  although  this  docu- 
ment is  missing  for  the  earlier  years  of  the  legajo.  As  already  men- 
tioned, this  legajo  and  104-3-9  furnish  a  fairly  complete  history  of  the 
financial  operations  of  the  Real  Caja  of  Guadalajara  from  1743  to 
1781,  but  this  is  the  better  legajo,  not  only  because  of  the  estados,  but 
also  because  disbursements  are  itemized.  Despite  the  great  value  of 
the  legajo,  only  five  items  mentioning  remissions  of  funds  to  San  Bias 
were  entered. — NPC 

47.  Legajos  104-3-23  to  25.  Cuentas  de  Real  Hacienda  de  Guadala- 
jara. These  three  legajos,  for  the  years  1761  to  1776,  form  part  of  a 
set  of  eight,  of  which  the  last  five  range  from  1777  to  1788.  Except 
for  three  Pliegos  de  Sumario^  for  1742,  1764,  and  1765,  the  materials  of 
legajo  104-3-23  consist  of  five  books,  -one  for  each  year  from  1761  to 
1765,  like  those  elsewhere  styled  Libros  Manuales.  In  later  years  the 
Relacion  Jurada,  Pliego  de  Sumario,  and  Resultas  y  Reparos  are  present, 
indicating  a  change  in  the  methods  of  accounting.  The  materials  are 
important,  since  the  figures  are  for  the  wide-sweeping  jurisdiction  of  the 
Real  Caja  of  Guadalajara,  and  bear  upon  the  economic  development, 
and  therefore  upon  the  Spanish  advance,  in  the  frontier  provinces. 
Among  materials  of  a  special  character  is  the  item  catalogued  as  num- 
ber 1,837,  summarizing  receipts,  disbursements,  and  remissions  to 
Mexico  for  each  year  from  1762  to  1771.  The  three  legajos  were  cata- 
logued in  entirety,  yielding  thirty-six  items. — NPC 

48.  Legajo  104-4-28.  Cuentas  de  Real  Hacienda  del  Rosario  y  Ala- 
mos. Anos  1772  jd  1781.  A  second  legajo  is  for  1782  to  1786.  Le- 
gajo 104-4-28  is  wholly  concerned  with  Alamos.  In  each  year  there 
are  four  classes  of  documents,  the  Pliego  de  Sumario,  Resultas  y  Reparos 
(called  Resultas  y  Reflexas  here),  Relacidn  Jurada ^^  and  Cuenta  de 
Cargo  y  Data,  the  last-named  providing  separate  accounts  of  each 
branch  of  real  hacienda.  These  papers  are  of  value  for  the  Spanish 
northwestward  advance,  as  they  indicate  the  economic  progress,  es- 
pecially of  the  mining  districts,  on  which  such  an  advance  was  based. 
All  of  the  fifty-two  items  of  legajo  104^-28  were  entered. — ^NPC 

49.  Legajo  104-5-10.  Cuentas  de  Real  Hacienda  de  las  Provincias 
Ynternas.  Anos  1779  a  1782.  The  legajo  is  not  well  described,  for  it 
deals  only  with  the  expenses  of  the  militia  companies  maintained  in 
Nueva  Vizcaya.     Nothing  was  entered. — ^NPC 

*i  Photographs  of  two  estados  are  given  in  appendix  II.  of  Chapman,  The  Found' 
ing  of  Spanish  California. 

22  For  unexplained  terms,  see  section  50,  where  definitions  are  given. 
2*  See  the  definitions  given  in  section  50. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  31 

50.  Legajos  104-5-11  to  15.  Cuentas  de  Real  Hacienda  de  S.  Bias 
de  California.  Anos  1774  d  1794.  These  legajos  contain  the  financial 
operations  of  the  Department  of  San  Bias  in  its  important  relation  to 
the  Californias.  While  the  materials  vary  in  some  measure  in  the 
different  legajos,  there  are  six  principal  types  of  documents  found. 
The  Relacion  Jurada,  or  sworn  statement  of  receipts  and  disbursements, 
made  up  at  the  end  of  each  year  by  the  commissary  of  San  Bias  and  his 
assistants,  provides  an  itemized  account  of  the  kinds  of  goods  sent  to 
the  Californias,  together  with  the  amounts  and  prices,  dates  of  ship- 
ment, ships  upon  which  they  were  loaded,  etc.  The  Pliego  de  Sumario 
is  a  summary  of  the  Relacion  Jurada.  The  ResuUas  y  Reparos,  also 
called  Pliegos  de  Consistencia,  Autos  de  Consistencia  y  Reparos,  and  yet 
other  names,  contains  a  detailed  comment  on  the  various  items  of  the 
Relacion  Jurada,  averaging  from  ten  to  twenty  times  that  document  in 
length.  The  two  last-described  documents  were  made  by  up  the  Real 
Tribunal  de  Cuentas  of  Mexico;  they  tend  in  great  measure  to  clear  up 
the  meaning  of  the  masses  of  figures  appearing  in  the  Relacidn  Jurada. 
Beginning  with  1786,  the  last  year  of  legajo  104-5-11,  the  documents 
consist  principally  of  three  leather-bound  volumes.  The  Lihro  Manual 
is  a  journal,  or  day  book,  in  which  items,  whether  debit  or  credit,  are 
entered  consecutively  under  each  day,  with  the  same  sort  of  comment  as 
that  of  the  Relacion  Jurada.  The  Lihro  Mayor  is  a  ledger,  and  the 
Lihro  de  Caxa,  or  Lihro  de  Tesorero,  is  a  cash  book.  In  these  later 
years,  the  first  three  documents  described  are  missing,  except  the 
ResuUas  y  Reparos,  and  that  is  briefer  than  before.  The  later  materials 
are  therefore  more  difficult  of  use  by  an  investigator. 

For  the  minute  details  of  the  Spanish  settlements  in  Alta  California, 
these  legajos  are  extremely  important,  since  that  colony  was  almost 
wholly  dependent  on  San  Bias.  These  documents  not  only  show  every- 
thing that  was  shipped  to  Alta  California,  but  also  furnish  much  inci- 
dental data,  such  as  the  names  of  ships  and  their  officers  and  the  dates 
of  sailing.  In  legajo  104-5-1 1  there  were  a  few  documents  of  a  financial 
character  other  than  those  described  above,  all  of  which  referred  to 
Alta  California.  Every  document  of  the  five  legajos^  103  in  all,  was 
entered.— NPC 

51.  Legajo  104-5-16.  Cuentas  de  Real  Hacda.  deS.  Carlos  de  Perote 
en  California.  Anos  1773  a  1789.  Two  other  legajos  in  this  set  carry 
the  dates  to  1803.  Legajo  104-5-16  is  complete  only  for  the  years 
1773,  1774,  and  1786  to  1789,  although  a  few  documents  of  1779  to 
1782  appear.    The  documents  are  the  same  as  those  described  in  section 


32  THE  HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL    REVIEW 

60.  Since  the  fort  of  San  Carlos  de  Perote  was  in  the  vicinity  of  Vera 
Cruz,  it  would  seem  that  the  legajo  is  wrongly  entitled.  Nevertheless, 
the  twenty  items  of  the  legajo  were  entered,  three,  at  least,  with  jus- 
tification, since  they  referred  to  the  accounts  of  the  presidio  of  Loreto 
in  Baja  CaHfornia. — NPC 

52.  Legajo  104-5-19.  Espedientes  de  Real  Hacienda  en  general. 
Anos  1764  d  1791.  This  is  the  first  of  a  set  of  five  legajos  running  to 
the  year  1819.  The  materials  were  a  distinct  surprise,  in  that  they  did 
not  consist  of  account  books  and  lists  of  figures,  but  were  rather  in  the 
nature  of  projects  of  real  hacienda.  They  are  principally  for  the  year 
1786  to  1791,  and  deal,  for  the  most  part,  with  the  Department  of  San 
Bias,  and  with  plans  for  instituting  trade  between  the  Philippines  and 
Alta  California.  Two  expedientes  appear  in  which  suggestions  were 
made,  between  1786  and  1790,  for  developing  the  fur  trade  of  Alta 
California  and  the  northwest  coast.  One  of  them  involved  also  the 
development  of  Alta  California's  mineral  wealth;  furs  were  to  be  ex- 
changed for  quicksilver,  which  was  to  be  procured  in  China  and  sent, 
by  way  of  the  Philippines,  to  San  Francisco.  The  legajo  yielded  thirty- 
eight  items  for  the  Catalogue. — NPC 

53.  Legajo  104-5-24.  Espedientes  e  instancias  de  partes.  Anos  1777 
d  1789.  A  second  legajo  is  for  1790  and  1791.  Although  legajo 
104-5-24  has  the  same  title  as  the  already  described  legajo  104-2-13, 
which  it  resembles  in  kind,  it  proved  unexpectedly  rich  in  materials  for 
the  Department  of  San  Bias,  the  greater  part  of  the  legajo  relating  to 
that  department.  Most  of  the  documents  have  the  usual  de  partes 
character  of  referring  to  individuals,  such  as  the  remittances  of  sums  by 
officials  of  San  Bias  to  their  families  in  Spain,  or  promotions  of  officials, 
or,  in  the  present  instance,  charges  against  them  on  the  ground  of  their 
operating  a  gambling  establishment,  but  there  are  some  expedientes  of 
a  general  character.  Most  important  of  the  entered  material  of  a  gen- 
eral nature  is  an  expediente  of  1777  about  a  proposal  to  move  the  De- 
partment of  San  Bias  to  Matanchel  or  Chacala.  Among  material 
not  entered  was  an  expediente  of  1788,  about  two  hundred  pages  long, 
concerning  the  causes  of  the  economic  decline  in  the  province  of  Du- 
raugo.    Fifty-five  items  were  entered. — NPC 

54.  Legajo  104-6-7.  Expediente  sobre  la  imposicion  y  cobro  de  tri- 
butos  en  la  Provincia  de  Sonora  y  otras.  Anos  1776.  This  legajo  in 
fact  deals  almost  wholly  with  the  collection  of  the  royal  tributes  from 
the  Indians  of  Sinaloa,  rather  than  from  those  of  Sonora.  Four  docu- 
ments were  entered  because  of  their  reference  to  general  laws  applying 
the  tributes  in  all  parts  of  New  Spain. — NPC 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  33 

55.  Legajo  104-6-8.  Patentes  y  Nombramtos.  militares.  Anos  1699 
a  1804-  This  is  both  a  very  important  and  an  exceedingly  well-ordered 
legajo,  covering  appointments  to  military  positions  in  the  frontier 
provinces  for  the  years  given  above.  The  material  is  arranged  in  sepa- 
rate folders  by  presidios  or  posts,  with  a  statement  of  the  inclusive  dates 
of  the  appointments.  The  file  is  fairly  complete,  one  officer  usually 
succeeding  a  predecessor  whose  prior  appointment  appears  in  the 
lega:jo.^^  The  appointments  are  for  commanders  of  the  particular  post, 
although  a  few  officials  of  lower  grade  appear.  Entry  was  made  of 
353  items  according  to  the  scheme  of  the  Catalogue.  The  list  itself  of 
the  military  posts,  with  the  inclusive  dates  of  appointments,  is  a 
matter  of  importance,  and  it  is  therefore  inserted  below,  just  as  it  ap- 
peared on  the  covers  of  the  various  folders.  Those  marked  with  a  double 
asterisk  were  entered  in  entirety;  those  with  a  single  asterisk,  to  1781; 
the  others  were  not  entered  at  all.  Where  the  inclusive  dates  are  inac- 
curate, they  are  corrected,  in  brackets,  before  or  after  the  given  dates, 
as  the  case  may  be. — NPC 

Post  Years 

1.  **Presidio  de  la  Bahia  del  Espiritu  Santo 1731^1783  [1799] 

2.  *Presidio  de  Sn.  Juan  Baupta  del  Rio  Grande 1709-1784  [1803] 

3.  **Presidio  del  Paso  del  Rio  del  Norte 1699-1782  [1803] 

4.  Presidio  de  Sn.  Felipe  y  Santiago  de  Janos 1734-1782  [1803] 

5.  *Presidio  Sta.  Gertrudis  del  Altar 1778-1784  ]1796] 

6.  Presidio  de  Sn.  Buenaventura 1774-1785  [1803] 

7.  **Presidio  de  Sn.  Diego  en  Californias 1782-  [1800] 

8.  Presidio  Santiago  de  Mapimi 1731-1738 

9.  Presidio  del  Sacramento 1738 

10.  **Presidio  de  Nra.  Sra.  de  Loreto  en  las  Californias  1746-1782   [1800] 

ir.  **Presidio  de  Sn.  Antonio  de  Vejar 1731-1782  [1803] 

12.  Presidio  de  Nayarit 1731-  [1769] 

13.  **Presidio  de  Sn.  Felipe  de  Jesus  de  Guevabi  en  Si- 

naloa 1747 

14.  **Presidio  de  Sn.  Pedro  de  Gracia  Rl.  6  Guevavi. . .  1746 

15.  **Presidio  de  Sn.  Franco,  en  las  Californias 1782  [1802] 

16.  **Presidio  de  Sta.  Barbara  en  Californias 1782-  [1802] 

17.  *Presidio  de  Terrenate  en  la  frontera  de  Sonora —  1755-1775 

18.  *Presidio  de  Sn.  Bernardino  en  Sonora 1776-1778  [1794] 

19.  **Presidio  de  Sn.  Eleceario 1778-  [1799] 

20.  **Sn.  Bias  de  Californias 1789-  [1800] 

21.  *Presidio  de  Nra.  Sra.  de  la  Concepcion  de  la  Mon- 

cloba 1733-1783  [1803] 

"  The  legajo  appears  to  have  been  in  the  file  of  the  Contadurla  General;  the 
appointnients  are  copies  of  the  duplicate  forwarded  to  it,  the  remitting  letters 
to  it  are  originals,  and  the  Contadurla  replies  are  drafts. 


34  THE   HISPANIC  AMERICAN   HISTORICAL  REVIETT 

22.  **Presidio  de  Tubac. 1767 

23.  **Milicias  de  Cavra.  de  las  Fronteras  de  Sierra 

Gorda [1794] 

24.  Presidio  del  Principe 1778-1784  [1804] 

25.  **Villa  de  Laredo 1789 

26.  Presidio  Sn.  Pedro  del  Gallo 1746 

27.  Presidio  de  Sn.  Gregorio  de  Zerralvo,  en  el  No.  Ro. 

de  Leon 1735 

28.  **Pre8idios       Internos    .     .     .     Nueva       Espana 

• .     .     .     Comandtes.— Ynspectores 1772-1785  [1803] 

29.  Nueva  Espa.  Cohahuila     .     .     .     Cirujano  Militar  1793-  [1796] 

30.  Provas.  Internas     .     .     .     Ofics.  de  Caballeria. . . .   [1786-1788] 

31.  N.  E.  Provincias  Internas  Retiros [1791] 

32.  N.E.   Provincias  Internas  .  Ofizs.   sin  de- 

nominon.  de  Cuerpo 1787-  [1790] 

33.  ♦*Tubac  Compania  de  Yndios  Pimas [1801] 

34.  **N.E.   Sn.  Rafael   de  Buena-vista  Compafiia  de 

Yndios  Pimas [1789] 

35.  **Presidio  de  Sn.  Carlos  de  Monterrey 1777-1783  [1802] 

36.  Presidio  de  Sn.  Carlos  de  Buena  Vista 1774r-1784  [1803] 

37.  *Presidio  Sn.  Miguel  de  Zerrogordo  6  San  Carlos..  1731- [1801] 

38.  **Pre8idio  de  Sn.  Sabds 1777-1782 

39.  Presidio  de  Sta.  Rosa  de  Aguaverde 1729-1778  [1804] 

40.  N.E.  Presidio  de  Guajoquilla 1774S8-2  [1804 

41.  *Pre8idio  de  Sn.  Fernando  del  Carrizal 177417  [1803] 

42.  *Pre8idio  de  Orcasistas 1778-178[[1794] 

43.  **Pre8idio  de  Sn.  Agustin  de  Tugson 1776-17831804]] 

44.  •♦Presidio  de  Sta.  Fee  del  Nuevo  Mexico 1778-1783  1803] 

45.  **Pre8idio  de  Sta.  Cruz 1776-1785  [ 

46.  ♦Presidio  Sn.  Bemno.  de  Fronteras 1782-[1802] 

47.  Compa.  de  Opatas  de  Bacoachi,  y  Babispe [1783-1802]  1802] 

48.  N.E.  Presidio  de  Sn.  Antonio  de  la  Babia 1774r-1785  [ 

49.  Compa.  Volante  de  la  Nueva  Vizcaya  1731-1804 

50.  Compa.  Volante  del  Saltillo 1784-  [1785] 

61.  Chiguagua  Compa.  Volante [1778-1784] 

52.  Nuevo  Santander 1789-[1802] 

63.  **Compa.  Volante  de  Monterrey [1788-1793] 

64.  Sn.  Teodoro  de  Conchos 1789 

55.  Compa.  Volante  de  Sn.  Carlos  de  Parras 1784-1802 

56.  Compania  Volante  de  Sn.  Juan  Bautista  de  Lam- 

pazos 1791  -1802 

57.  Compa.  Volante  de  las  Provas.  Internas  de  N.E. . .   [1699]  -1785 
68.  Companias  f  rancas  de  Voluntarios  de  las  Provincs. 

Internas  de  N.E [1788]  -1800 

66.  Legajo  104-6-9.  Asuntos  de  Guerra.  Anos  1752  d  1769.  The 
title  of  this  legajo  comes  from  a  thirty-two  page  expediente  of  four  docu- 
ments for  the  year  1769,  dealing  with  the  Sonora  campaign.    This  was 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEGAJOS  35 

the  only  material  catalogued.  The  principal  contend  of  the  legajo  is  a 
number  of  testimonios,  five  of  them  bulking  large,  stated  as  having  been 
found  (presumably  by  those  who  made  up  the  legajo)  without  the  letters 
with  which  originally  they  were  enclosed.  They  are  papers  in  certain 
lawsuits,  and  are  asuntos  de  guerra  only  in  that  military  men  were  the 
judges.— NPC 

57.  Legajo  104-6-12.  Fortificaciones,  Pertrechos  de  Guerra,  Situ- 
ados  de  tropa  y  sus  Yncidencias.  Anos  1763  d  1787.  This  is  a  small 
legajo,  mainly  composed  of  expedientes  arising  from  the  petitions  of 
military  men  for  promotion.  There  are  a  few  documents  also  about 
the  movement  of  troops.     Nothing  was  entered. — NPC 

58.  Legajos  104-6-13  to  23.  Fortificaciones,  Pertrechos  de  Guerra, 
Situados  de  Tropa  y  Provisiones  de  Empleos  de  las  Provincias  Ynternas. 
Anos  1760  a  1832.  After  an  investigation  of  the  similarly-named  sets 
already  described  in  sections  16  and  57  had  revealed  little  of  value  for 
the  Catalogue  not  much  was  expected  of  this  series  of  eleven  legajos. 
The  surprise  and  exhilarating  joy  experienced  by  the  writer  may  well 
be  imagined  when  he  discovered,  not  only  that  it  was  very  rich,  but 
also  that  it  was  by  far  the  most  important  group  of  materials  for  the 
purposes  of  the  Catalogue  of  all  that  he  had  found  during  his  stay  in 
Seville — and  no  others  approaching  it  in  wealth  were  later  encountered. 
Two  of  the  legajos,  104-6-21  and  104-6-23,  do  indeed  resemble  those 
in  sections  16  and  57,  in  that  they  are  mostly  concerned  with  routine 
matters,  such  as  petitions  for  promotion  and  remittances  of  funds,  par- 
ticularly by  San  Bias  officials,  to  their  families  in  Spain.  Two  others, 
legajos  104-6-20  and  104-6-22,  while  of  more  than  ordinary  impor- 
tance, do  not  equal  the  first  seven  legajos  of  the  set  in  the  superlativeness 
of  their  value.  xj^^c^oh  Libmry 

The  inclusive  dates  given  are  misleading,  in  that  there  is  nothing  in 
the  set  of  later  date  than  1787,  except  one  two-page  expediente  of  1832. 
For  the  years  1760  to  1787,  but  more  particularly  from  1766  to  1781, 
one  of  the  most  active  periods  in  the  entire  history  of  the  region  usu- 
ally designated  the  Provincias  Internas,  the  legajos  furnish  nearly  com- 
plete files  of  the  official  materials  bearing  upon  the  military  affairs  of 
the  frontier  and  the  Spanish  projects  for  further  conquest,  especially  so 
far  as  they  relate  to  the  northwestward  advance  toward  "and  into  Alta 
California.  To  single  out  the  important  items  would  involve  a  greater 
use  of  space  than  is  intended  in  this  portion  of  the  Catalogue,  but  the 
following  are  some  of  the  topics  that  are  represented  here  with  more 
than  ordinary  completeness:  some  of  the  most  valuable  papers  of  the 


36  THE   HISPANIC  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW 

Rubl  inspection  from  1766  to  1768,  although  the  Rubf  testimonios  are 
in  legajos  103-4-15  and  16;  English  attemps  at  settlement  and  illicit 
trade  in  Texas  and  along  the  east  coast  of  northern  New  Spain  during 
the  years  preceding  the  outbreak  of  the  American  Revolution;  numer- 
ous expedientes  about  wars  against  the  Seris  and  Pimas  in  Sonora, 
against  the  Apaches  along  the  frontier  from  Sonora  to  Texas,  and  some 
against  the  Taramaures  in  Nueva  Vizcaya  and  theComanchesinNew 
Mexico;  various  expedientes  about  the  work  of  Jos^  de  Gdlvez  with  rela- 
tion to  the  founding  of  the  Department  of  San  Bias  and  the  expeditions 
of  1769  to  Alta  California,  and  his  activities  in  Baja  California  and 
Sonora,  although  there  is  more  on  these  points  in  legajos  104-3-2  and  3 
than  here;  a  great  many  expedientes  about  the  progress  of  Alta  Cali- 
fornia, during  the  years  covered  by  the  legajos,  in  the  founding  of  pre- 
sidios, missions,  and  pueblos,  the  conversions  of  natives,  the  various 
phases  of  economic  development,  and  the  growth  of  the  Spanish  popu- 
lation; numerous  expedientes  about  the  supply  ships  sailing  from  San 
Bias  to  the  Californias,  and  about  the  affairs  of  the  Department  of 
San  Bias  in  general;  the  voyages  of  discovery  to  the  northwest  coast, 
although  there  is  more  on  this  subject  in  several  of  the  Estado  group  of 
legajos;  numerous  expedientes  about  the  division  of  the  Californias, 
as  mission  fields,  between  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans  of  the  Col- 
lege of  San  Fernando,  with  much  material  as  to  the  progress  of  Baja 
California  in  the  Dominican  period ;  the  internal  development  of  Sonora, 
with  much  about  the  advancement  resulting  from  the  discoveries  of 
precious  metals  at  Cieneguilla  and  elsewhere;  numerous  expedientes 
about  the  work  of  Hugo  Oconor  and  others  in  establishing  the  line  of 
frontier  presidios,  and  about  the  reviews  of  presidios  in  every  province 
of  the  frontier,  from  the  two  Californias  to  Texas;  detailed  accounts, 
with  diaries  and  official  letters,  about  the  important  journeys  and  expe- 
ditions of  exploration  by  land  during  the  period,  including,  among 
others,  the  various  Carets  journeys,  the  two  Anza  expeditions  to  Alta 
Cahfornia,  the  two  Rivera  expeditions  to  the  same  province,  the 
Veldzquez  expedition  from  Baja  Cahfornia  to  the  mouth  of  the  Colo- 
rado River,  the  Fages  and  Rivera  expeditions  to  San  Francisco  Bay, 
the  Mora  visita  in  Baja  California,  and  the  Domfnguez  and  Escalante 
expedition  from  New  Mexico  to  Utah;  a  five  hundred  page  expediente, 
which  might  have  been  expected  to  appear  elsewhere,  about  the  Berro- 
terdn  explorations  of  the  Rio  Grande  in  1729  and  1738,  and  the  Rdbago 
campaigns  against  the  Apaches  in  Coahuila  from  1747  to  1749;  various 
expedientes  concerning  the  forming  of  reglamentos  for  the  government 


DESCRIPTION    or    LEGAJOS  37 

of  the  Calif ornias;  expedientes  illustrating  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
the  adjustment  of  the  Provincias  Internas  to  their  separate  status  from 
the  viceroyalty,  in  particular  with  regard  to  the  problems  of  northward 
advance;  numerous  expedientes  about  the  projects  for  occupation  of  the 
Gila-Colorado  country,  the  founding  of  settlements  at  the  junction  of 
the  two  rivers,  and  the  Yuma  disaster  of  1781;  the  voluminous  reports 
of  Oconor,  Croix,  Neve,  and  others,  about  the  state  of  affairs  in  the 
Provincias  Internas,  although  the  three  of  Croix  1-eferred  to  in  the  de- 
scription of  legajo  103-3-24  are  missing  here;  numerous  ultimas  noti- 
cias  (latest  news)  letters,  giving  summaries  of  recent  happenings  in 
some  or  all  of  the  frontier  provinces;  and  various  other  topics  which 
some  might  deem  comparable  in  interest  to  those  that  have  just  been 
named. 

Not  only  in  subject-matter,  but  also  in  orderliness  of  arrangement 
and  in  the  technical  value  of  the  papers,  this  set  ranks  with  the  best  in 
the  archives.  The  papers  seem  never  to  have  been  used  since  they  were 
filed,  a  century  before,  for  the  expediente  groups  within  the  legajos  were 
like  so  many  pieces  of  wood  in  their  unbending  and  resonant  solidity.^^ 
After  being  worked  over  for  a  few  seconds  they  miraculously  became 
folds  of  paper,  and  the  legajos  by  actual  measurement,  were  over  an 
inch  higher  when  packed  down  and  tied  up  again  than  they  were  when 
the  papers  were  first  opened.  Nearly  all  of  the  documents  are  the 
originals  of  the  viceroys,  comandantes  generates.,  and  some  others  to 
the  ministro  general  in  Spain,  enclosing  certified  copies,  with  drafts  of 
the  replies  of  the  ministros  generates. 

Unfortunately,  this  set  was  discovered  by  the  writer  near  the  end  of 
his  stay  in  Seville,  when  both  time  and  funds  were  running  out.  It  was 
therefore  catalogued  on  the  basis  of  its  relation  to  the  history  of  Alta 
California  and  the  approaches  thereto,  and  then  a  second  campaign  of 
listing  began,  with  the  object  of  entering  all  items  not  included  the 
first  time.     In  this  way  legajos  104-6-13  to  17  were  catalogued  in  en- 

^^  Senor  Torres  Lanzas  had  previously  looked  through  the  legajos  for  some  of 
the  maps  which  appeared  i^  his  Relation  descriptiva  de  los  mapas,  pianos,  &  [!] 
de  Mexico  y  Floridas,  existentes  en  el  Archivo  General  de  Indias  (2  v.  Se villa,  1900), 
but  he  merely  glanced  at  the  edges  of  the  expedientes,  and,  if  he  saw  no  map  (for 
they  are  usually  discernible),  did  not  open  the  file.  Both  he  and  the  late  Senor 
Verger  expressed  their  belief  that  nobody  else  had  used  this  set — but  the  condi- 
tion of  the  expedientes  is  proof  enough  in  itself  that  none  of  them  had  been  opened 
except  the  few  examined  by  Senor  Torres  Lanzas.  Shepherd  sensed  their  value, 
for  he  mentions  the  set  (see  his  Guide  to  the  Materials  for  the  History  of  the  United 
States  in  Spanish  Archives,  Washington,  1907,  p.  67). 


38  THE    HISPANIC   AMERICAN   HISTORICAL   REVIEW 

tirety.'  The  number  of  items  entered  in  each  legajo,  with  their  total 
of  2,327  documents,  is  shown  below.  The  omissions  may  in  a  measure 
be  made  good  by  a  reference  here  to  outstanding  items,  but  they  are 
in  any  event  of  less  consequence  than  might  have  been  expected,  since 
legajos  104-6-18  and  19  are  predominantly  Alta  Californian,  and  there- 
fore most  of  the  documents  in  them  were  catalogued,  while  legajos 
104-6-21  and  23  are  of  Httle  value,  and  104-6-20  and  22  are  less 
strikingly  important  than  the  first  seven  legajos  of  the  set. 

Legajo  No.  of  Items         Legajo  No.  of  Items 

104-6-13 220   104-6-20 70 

104^6-14 392    104-6-21 37 

104r6-15 286    104-6-22 181 

104-6-16 340   104r-6-23 27 

104r^-17 421  

104-6-18 244           Total 2,327 

104-6-19 109 

Much  of  the  materials  in  the  unentered  expedientes  has  already  been 
indicated  in  the  general  description  of  the  contents  of  the  set.  The 
following  are  some  of  the  more  noteworthy  expedientes  that  were  not 
catalogued :  a  considerable  expediente  about  the  visit  of  Governor  Anza 
of  New  Mexico  to  the  land  of  the  Moquis,  whom  he  found  in  a  state  of 
great  misery  (legajo  104-6-19) ;  an  expediente  of  about  a  thousand  pages 
concerning  the  removal  of  Captain  Rafael  Martfnez  Pacheco  from  the 
command  at  Babia,  Coahuila  (legajo  104-6-20) ;  an  expediente  contain- 
ing the  reviews  of  Texas  presidios  in  1782  (legajo  104-6-20) ;  and  two 
expedientes,  composing  half  a  legajo  concerning  the  militia  of  Parras 
(legajo  1 04-6-21). 2"— NPC 

59.  Legajo  104-6-24.  Espedientes  sobre  instalacidn,  Trastocion 
[Traslaci6n\  y  Reglamento  de  Presidios  Ynternos.  Afios  1779  a  1782. 
The  twenty-one  items  of  this  valuable  legajo  were  all  entered.  While 
most  of  the  documents  appear  in  other  legajos,  the  general  idea  con- 
veyed in  the  above  title  is  nowhere  so  well  represented  as  here.  All 
the  documents  are  for  the  years  1779  and  1780,  except  the  printed  in- 
structions of  1771  and  1772  for  a  line  of  frontier  presidios  and  a  Gdlvez 
letter  of  1782.  Worthy  of  special  note  is  a  bulky  summary  (noted  in 
the  Catalogue  at  item  number  4,082,  paragraph  three)  covering  not 
only  Croix's  letters  catalogued  as  4,082,  4,149,  and  4,150,  which  are  in 
the  legajo,  but  also  his  letters  numbered  396  and  450  (both  absent  and 

28  Many  copies  have  since  been  procured  for  the  Bancroft  Library. 


DESCRIPTION   OF   LEGAJOS  39 

not  catalogued)  and  another,  which  is  in  a  different  legajo,  entered  as 
4,151.— NPC 

60.  Legajo  104-7-6.  Espedientes  del  Comercio  de  San  Bias  de  Cali- 
fornia con  Panama.  Anos  1789  a  1818.  The  whole  legajo  forms  a 
single  expediente,  which  is  subdivided  into  twenty-three  subordinate 
expedientes.  The  principal  idea  involved  is  that  of  the  continual  com- 
plaints of  the  merchants  of  Vera  Cruz  against  the  grant  to  Panamd  of  a 
right  to  trade  freely  with  neighboring  colonies,  and,  among  other 
places,  with  the  port  of  San  Bias.  Only  those  expedientes  bearing  upon 
the  commerce  of  San  Bias  were  entered,  but  that  port  is  dealt  with  in 
all  of  them,  except  part  one  of  number  2,  and  numbers  14  to  16,  18 
to  21,  and  23.  The  number  of  items  entered  was  104.  The  uncata- 
logued  expedientes  treat  of  the  following  matters :  the  commercial  rela- 
tions of  Vera  Cruz  with  Havana,  Tampico,  and  Campeche;  the  com- 
plaints of  the  casa  de  moneda  of  Mexico,  because  silver  was  not  being 
brought  there  for  coining;  and  appointments  to  the  new  customs  house 
at  Tampico,  and  the  regulations  concerning  it.  Much  of  this  type  of 
material  appears  also  in  some  of  the  entered  items  of  the  expedientes 
catalogued.  Most  of  the  documents  are  for  the  period  of  the  Spanish 
American  revolutions,  which,  in  the  case  of  San  Bias,  made  communi- 
cation with  Panamd  a  necessity,  since  it  was  not  possible  with 
Vera  Cruz.— NPC 

61.  Legajo  104-7-8.  Eclesiastico.  Consultas,  Decretos  y  Provi- 
siones  eclesiasticas.  Anos  1797  d  1807.  This  is  the  middle  of  three 
legajos  so  entitled,  the  inclusive  dates  of  the  set  being  1700  to  1821. 
The  dates  of  this  legajo  are  not  accurate,  as  there  are  a  number  of 
expedientes  for  the  years  preceding  1797,  especially  from  1786  to  1796. 
Most  of  the  documents  concern  ecclesiastical  appointments,  such  as 
to  the  office  of  canon,  dean,  or  treasurer  of  a  cathedral,  but  there  are 
many  that  are  more  general  in  character,  all  dealing  with  the  secular 
branch  of  the  clergy,  except  where  the  regulars  were  serving  as  priests 
and  were  subject,  in  a  measure,  to  a  bishop.  None  of  the  documents 
bear  specifically  on  regions  now  within  the  United  States,  and  no  en- 
tries, therefore,  were  made,  but  much  of  the  material  came  near  to  a 
right  of  entry.  The  following  of  this  type  may  be  noted:  an  expedi- 
ente of  about  three  hundred  pages  concerning  the  erection  of  the  bishop- 
ric of  Nuevo  Leon,  involving  also  the  province  of  Nuevo  Santailder,  with 
documents  for  the  years  1774  to  1797;  and  several  expedientes  on  the 
question  whether  soldiers  of  the  Provincias  Internas  ought  to  pay 
tithes.— NPC 


40  THE   HISPANIC   AMERICAN   HISTORICAL   REVIEW 

62.  Legajo  104-7-33.  Eclesiastico.  Espedte.  sohre  erecciondel  ohis- 
pado  de  Sonora  y  su  establedmiento.  Anos  1776  a  1787.  This  legajo 
bears  the  marks  of  usage,  though  not  of  copying,  in  that  it  is  in  utter 
disorder.  Originally,  the  documents  formed  a  single  expediente  and 
they  have  been  brought  together  in  cataloguing,  though  not  as  they 
must  once  have  been  filed.  They  deal,  not  only  with  the  erection  of 
the  bishopric  of  Sonora,  but  also  with  the  establishment  of  the  custodias 
of  San  Gabriel  (Alta  California),  Sonora,  Nueva  Vizcaya,  and  New 
Mexico.  The  plans  for  these  institutions  take  up  most  of  the  legajo, 
while  the  later  material  deals  almost  wholly  with  Sonora  and  its  north- 
ernmost district,  Pimeria  Alta.  By  far  the  greater  number  of  the  docu- 
ments serve  to  illustrate  the  machinery  involved  in  the  execution  of 
these  projects,  from  their  proposal  by  Antonio  de  los  Reyes,  the  later 
bishop,  to  their  authorization  by  the  pope  and  enactment  into  law. 
The  Reyes  plan  (3,317),  the  Revilla  Gigedo  history  of  the  custodias 
(5,436),  and  the  Barbastro  statistical  account  of  the  custodia  of  San 
Carlos,  or  Sonora  (5,493),  are  perhaps  the  principal  items  of  the  legajo. 
All  but  a  few  of  the  documents  were  entered,  yielding  117  items. — NPC 

63.  Legajo  105-1-24.  Eclesiastico.  Ereccion  y  Estatuto  para  los 
Misioneros  en  las  Provincias  Ynternas.  Anos  177 J^.  This  covers  the 
same  subject-matter  as  legajo  104-7-33,  part  of  the  material  of  which 
it  duplicates,  but  it  is  almost  wholly  concerned  with  the  erection  of  the 
four  custodias.  The  documents  of  legajos  104-7-33  seem  to  have  been 
the  file  of  the  ministro  general,  while  those  of  legajo  105-1-24  were  prob- 
ably that  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  This  legajo  is  in  good  order, 
and  omits  many  of  the  purely  routine  documents  that  appear  in 
legajo  104-7-33.  It  is  wrongly  dated,  for  there  are  materials  of  other 
years  than  1774;  in  fact,  perhaps  the  greater  part  of  the  legajo  is  for 
1779  to  1782.  While  most  of  the  legajo  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  Reyes 
plans  for  custodias,  there  is  one  expediente  for  1796  and  1797,  about 
Indian  affairs  in  Nueva  Vizcaya,  that  is  somewhat  remote  from  the 
principal  idea  of  the  legajo.  This  expediente  was  not  entered,  leaving  a 
total  of  sixty  items  that  were  catalogued. — NPC 

64.  Legajo  105-1-25.  Eclesiastico.  Espedientes  de  Misiones.  Anos 
1768  a  1819.  The  dates  given  are  misleading,  since  the  legajo  is  almost 
wholly  for  the  years  1788  to  1810.  It  contains  much  useful  material 
for  the  two  Californias,  to  which  more  than  half  of  the  legajo  is  devoted, 
in  fairly  equal  amounts  for  each  of  the  two  provinces.  Fourteen  expe- 
dientes,  containing  seventy-eight  items,  were  entered.  The  following 
are  some  of  the  matters  taken  up :  an  expediente  of  over  three  hundred 


DESCRIPTION  OF  LEG  A  JOS  41 

pages,  dated  1768  to  1797,  about  the  grant  of  missions  in  Baja  California 
to  the  Dominicans;  various  expedientes  about  the  sending  of  Dominican 
missionaries  from  Spain,  involving  the  question  how  much  the  govern- 
ment should  allow  them  for  expenses;  two  expedientes,  1788  to  1792, 
about  the  mutual  complaints  of  the  governor  and  the  president  of  the 
missions  in  Alta  California;  and  an  expediente  of  1789,  concerning  the 
steps  taken  for  founding  new  missions  in  the  two  Californias. — NPC 

Charles  E.  Chapman. 


